Deciding when your child is considered contagious depends on the illness. Below are some guidelines to follow:
• Chicken Pox: Child must stay home until all lesions are crusted over.
• Colds: If symptoms are mild, he/she doesn’t need to be excluded from school. If you child generally feels miserable, has a persistent cough, or nasal drainage is yellow or green, keep home and take to a licensed medical provider if symptoms persist.
• Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye): If eye is draining yellow discharge, is totally red or crusted over, keep home and take to licensed medical provider. Slight redness of the white or tearing when eye remains white may be due to allergies or an irritation and student is ok to be at school.
• Draining wounds: If wound secretions are draining through bandage, keep home. A wound that is hot, red and painful is showing signs of an infection and should be seen by a licensed medical provider.
• Draining ears: Keep home and take to a licensed medical provider if persists, may return when drainage has stopped.
• Fever: Temperature over 100.4 should stay at home until temperature is normal for 24 hours without the aid of fever-reducing medications (ex. Tylenol, Advil).
• Head Lice: If a student has head lice, the parent will be notified and will need to sign a waiver that the child has been treated for the child to return. Paperwork on cleaning and getting rid of lice and their eggs (nits) will be sent home with the student.
• Influenza: Keep home until fever free for 24 hours without fever reducing medication and/or the direction of your health care provider.
• Rash: A student with a rash accompanied by a fever or that is spreading should be taken to a licensed medical provider. The student may return to school when the rash is gone or a note from the licensed health care provider clears the student to return.
• Ringworm: The child may attend school 24 hours after treatment has started along with a note clearing the student to return to school. Lesions should be covered with clothing or bandages while the student is at school.
• Stomach “Flu”: Child needs to stay home if vomiting or having diarrhea. The child may return to school 24 hours after symptoms have cleared.
• Strep Throat: If diagnosed by the licensed medical provider, child must be on antibiotics for 24 hours before returning to school.
Please call the School Nurse if you have any further questions.
