At the Cinnaminson Township School District board meeting on Nov. 19, parent Danielle Friess said the district terminated its contract with nursing provider Care Options for Kids — a service that had supported her son Oscar since infancy — and replaced the agency with district-employed nurses without prior board approval or public notice. "The district ended the contract and hired their own district nurses," Friess said, adding that the family learned of the change only after the agency informed them.

Friess told the board the contract had been approved in the minutes from Sept. 25 for the 2025–26 school year but, she said, the district ended the agreement "without cause and before any school board vote." She said the district told her the change was "due to money" and asked what level of savings would justify what she called the increased risk to her son, who has a complex congenital heart condition and has undergone two major surgeries.

At the meeting, grandparent and family advocate Mike O'Donnell described a recent incident in which he said Oscar's oxygen saturation dropped into the 'seventies' before a nurse arrived; he credited the long-term nurses with stabilizing the child and said replacing staff who know the child's baseline creates added risk. "I don't know how this school district can take the responsibility for a fragile child away from nurses who've known him for 4 years," O'Donnell said.

Friess said she had met with district officials (she named Superintendent Capello and a person she called Lewellen) earlier the same day and that she was told the district prefers to hire its own nurses rather than contract with outside providers. She told the board she had not been consulted about the change and asked members to reach out to certified school nurses across the district about staffing and working conditions.

Board members did not take a formal vote on the specific contract change during the public-comment period. In response to Friess's statement that the change had not been on the meeting agenda, board leadership and district staff offered to follow up with her and the family; the transcript records that Friess said she had limited time and concluded her remarks.

The meeting record does include multiple routine business and personnel approvals later in the agenda; however, the specific contract termination Friess referenced was brought to the board's attention via public comment rather than as a board motion or agenda item at the Nov. 19 meeting. The district's rationale and any internal documents authorizing the contract change were not included in the public record presented at the meeting.