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Illness Guidelines

As the new school year begins, colds and flus make their greatest push to disrupt our lives. It is important, both for the health of your child and that of other children, that your child not return to school too soon after an illness. If your child is staying home ill, please call the attendance secretary at your child’s school. We would appreciate a description of your child’s illness so that we can take steps at school to reduce the spread of contagious diseases.

Knowing the symptoms of our ill students is even more critical with the concern for a pandemic influenza.  According to the Rockwood Clinic Newsletter, the following guidelines are appropriate reasons to keep children home from school:

• A fever greater than 101° F in the last 24 hours
• A rash that is associated with fever or itching
• A bad cough-one that you wouldn’t want your well child around
• A consistent, goopy, runny nose
• Vomiting and/or diarrhea
• A sore throat, especially with fever or swollen glands in the neck
• A child that is acting ill-unusually tired, pale, difficult to wake, confused or irritable, lacking normal appetite.

After these illnesses, children can return to school if they meet the following
criteria:

• Strep throat-if the child has been on antibiotics for 24 hours, has no fever and feels ok
• Conjunctivitis (pink eye) – if the child has been approved to return to school by a licensed health care provider,
  Lice-if the child has been treated, and there are no live lice and the nits (eggs) have been removed
• Ear infections-if the child has been treated by a physician
• Chicken pox-if all vesicles (sores) are crusted over.

We encourage you to seek medical attention when you children are ill and to follow your doctor’s recommendations about children returning to school.  Please do not send your children to school if they are ill. Parents will be contacted if children become ill at school. Be sure the school has a number where you can be reached.

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