Should I Keep My Child Home?

 

 

 

It’s that time of year again when colds and flu are all around! One of the problems most often confronting parents of school-age children occurs when a child complains of not feeling well on a school day. A decision must be made as to whether the child stays home or goes to school. What do you do? How do you make the right decision? You don’t want to keep a child home if they aren’t really sick, but you also don’t want to send them to school sick either. The following information is not intended as medical advice, but may help you to know when to keep your child home from school. It is merely designed to provide guidelines to be followed until your doctor can be contacted for an opinion.

 

Most important — Use Common Sense

·         Do not send your child if they have had a fever within the past 24 hours.

·         Do not send your child to school with an illness that could spread.

·         Do not send your child if he would be miserable all day or would distract the other children.

·         Have “just in case” care for your child in the event you are unable to stay home with a sick child.

 

APPEARANCE/BEHAVIOR

·         Unusually tired, pale, difficult to wake, confused or irritable, with lack of appetite.

 

FEVER

·      Children may not come to school if they have had a fever above normal temperature within the previous 24 hours. A fever that has been reduced by medication DOES NOT mean that they are fever free.

 

 COMMON COLD and FLU

·         A long-term, (chronic) greenish nose discharge, and/or a chronic cough are symptoms that should be seen by a doctor.

 

VOMITING & DIARRHEA

·         Vomiting within the past 24 hours ·

       Watery stools in a 24-hour period, especially if your child acts or looks ill.

                       Your child may return to school after 24 hours without being ill.

 

EAR INFECTIONS

·         Your child may attend school after receiving medical treatment. (Untreated ear infections can cause permanent hearing loss, and even more serious problems.)

 

EYES

·         Thick mucus or pus draining from eye, or pink eye. Your child can attend school 24 hours after starting medical treatment.

 

RASH

·         Body rash, especially with fever and itching (Unknown rashes should always be diagnosed by a doctor before returning to school).

 

HEAD LICE

·         Children cannot return to school until their hair has been treated with lice shampoo and the dead eggs(nits) have been combed out with a special comb.

 

SORE THROAT

·         Especially with fever, or swollen glands in the neck. Please see guidelines for FEVER.

 

If your child will be absent from school for any reason, please notify the school, by 8:00 A.M., with a reason why. This will assist the school in keeping track of your child’s whereabouts and provide a record of the types of illness that affect the school.

 

Please use your own good common sense and notify your child’s physician of any concerns you might have. A good rule to follow is “when in doubt, call.”

 

Remember:

 

 

Thank you so much for helping keep our school a safe, and healthy place for all of our students!