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Parents meet over shortage of nurses at CMS schools

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A group of Charlotte parents is continuing a push to have more school nurses.

But right now, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools only has about one nurse for every 1,200 students.

Federal guidelines recommend one for every 750.

Marguerite Fourqurean is a parent of a CMS student.

"We have 40,000 students with asthma, epilepsy, diabetes food allergies and these kids are left vulnerable during the school day if the school nurse isn't there," she said.

CMS added 11 school nurses this year.

Laura Sharpe's son has epilepsy. He's in seventh grade at Randolph Middle, a school with a full-time nurse.

"She knows him very well, she knows our situation and she's an advocate, a teacher and a case worker for him. She's our point person if there's a bad day for him," Sharpe said.

Many elementary schools have a nurse two to three days a week, Sharpe said having a school administrator or teacher fill the gap isn't enough.

"It's such a strong piece of mind for me and for my son and for the teachers who work for him to know that if he has a crisis situation or he's just not feeling well that they have someone that they can go to," said Sharpe.

School nurses are largely funded by the county and these advocates say they want to turn this into an election issue to force county commissioners to close the gap even further.

Channel 9 is working to find out how many schools don't have nurses on any given day.