Nurse Information

The nurse for Sinclair is Zharleen Brantner, and she has been with Sinclair since December 2023. She has also been a Sinclair parent since 2020. Mrs. Brantner is a registered nurse with 15 years of ICU experience, and she is very thankful for the opportunity.   

Office Hours & Location

The nurse’s office is open from 7:00 a.m. until 2:45 p.m. during regularly scheduled school days. The office is located inside the front office. She can be contacted by email: ZharleenAnn.Brantner@houstonisd.org, or by calling 713-867-5160.

Illness at Home

Students are advised to stay home if they are feeling ill in order to protect other students and staff from possible virus/disease transmission. Students should remain at home until their illness has fully resolved, and they have been fever free for the past 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication. Students who have been vomiting should not return until they are vomit free for 24 hours and have kept solid food in.  If a student is absent for three consecutive days, it is mandatory that he/she presents a physician’s note indicating that the child has been seen and that it is safe to return to school. This will allow the absences to be marked as excused and reassure the school community that every effort to minimize the transmission of treatable contagious diseases is being made. Parents must document all absences by writing a note and sending it with their child, or emailing it to our Registrar, Mrs. Chavez or our Principal Mr. Mashburn . Parents are requested to report all confirmed or suspected contagious diseases to the school nurse. This includes lice, strep throat, pink eye, Covid exposure as well as covid-like symptoms. 

Illness/Injury at School

When a student becomes ill or injured during the school day, a pass to the nurse’s office must be obtained from the current teacher. The nurse will triage and assess, and call the parent if necessary to discuss the best response to the situation. The nurse will make every effort to keep children in school with the exception of vomiting, fever, or obvious communicable illness.  If a student returns to the clinic on multiple occasions with no illness/injury found, the parent will be called and notified as a courtesy. Students should report any injuries occurring during a school day to their teacher as soon as possible and sent to the nurse’s office. It should be noted that the student’s family health insurance plan is the primary coverage for school-related illness and injury.

State-Mandated Screening

Vision, hearing, scoliosis & acanthosis nigracans will be conducted throughout the year.

Doctor Appointments

It is recommended that doctor appointments be scheduled outside of school hours. If a student must see a doctor during school hours, parents should notify the attendance office in advance with exact appointment times, anticipated period of absence and time of return to school. Parents are required to sign their child out of school and sign their child back in upon return. Please note when attempting to make appointments later in the day or after school, the early pick up cut off time is 1:30pm.

Pre-Existing Medical Conditions

Parents are requested to provide the school nurse with documentation from their student’s physician regarding any medical conditions that require monitoring (e.g. diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, seizure disorder, etc.) along with instructions and contact numbers in case of an emergency. Information regarding health concerns can also be shared confidentially with our nurse, Becky Kerr.

Medications

All medications, including over-the-counter (OTC) medication, cough drops, lotion, or any substance that is absorbed by the body,  prescribed drugs and/or inhalers must have a physician's order to be administered by the nurse. In addition, only a parent can deliver medication to and from school. Students are not allowed to carry or store medications of any kind unless the physician's order states the student may self-administer.
Parents must provide the school nurse with a signed and completed appropriate medication authorization form which grants permission for medication to be administered by the nurse for students requiring any daily or long-term medication during school hours. Please note, there can be only one medication listed per form. The medication authorization forms are valid for the entire school year, new authorization forms are required at the beginning of each fall semester. All medications must be sent to the school in the original container which includes a pharmacy label and dosage instructions. The medication will be stored in a locked cabinet in the health office. At the end of each school year, any remaining medications should be collected by the parents. All medications must be kept with the nurse, though special exceptions are made on an individual basis. For instance, students diagnosed with asthma and requiring inhaler treatment may be allowed to carry their inhaler. Special permission for this is granted when the parent and physician complete the appropriate supplemental form which will be maintained on file in the nurse’s office. Permission forms for this purpose may be obtained from our website or requested from the nurse’s office.

 

 

FORMS FOR YOUR STUDENT: