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When You Should Keep Your Child Home

In order to maintain the health and safety of everyone in our school district, please review these guidelines for determining when your child should be kept home from school.

Please keep children home if they have the following;

• Nasal secretions (yellow or green in color)
• Persistent cough
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Fever
• Sore throat
• Rashes
• Conjunctivitis (red or runny eyes)

Fever

A Fever is a strong indicator of the body fighting and infection. Children should be kept home if they have a temperature of 100.0 degrees or higher. Children need to be fever FREE for 24 hour (without fever-treating medications) before returning to school.

Vomiting or Diarrhea

Recurrent vomiting or diarrhea often means infection. Children need to be kept at home for at least 24 hours after any episode of vomiting or diarrhea, especially if accompanied by a fever.

Sore throats, especially if your child has swollen glands

During the school year, we see a number of children with strep throat. Not all children will have classic sore throat symptoms. Difficulty swallowing, a sore neck, headache, stomach ache, loss of appetite, swollen or tender neck glands are all signs to watch for in your child. If you notice these symptoms, please contact your health care provider.

Antibiotics

Children who are placed on antibiotics for strep throat or conjunctivitis (pink eye), must be on these medications for more than 24 hours before returning to school to prevent the spread of infection.

Cold or Flu symptoms

Children who are coughing or sneezing are spreading infection and need to be kept home from school. Be especially cautious if your child has a productive cough, or has nasal secretions which are yellow or green in color.

The above symptoms need to be absent for at least 24 hours prior to returning to school.