Communicable Disease
SCHOOL RESPONSIBILITIES:
It is through a cooperative effort that we provide a healthy and safe school environment for all students and school employees. Students who are assessed by the nurse, administrator, or designee and are determined to have a possible communicable disease, show signs and symptoms of illness, or sustain an injury requiring medical attention are to be dismissed from school. The following guidelines are provided:
•Students desiring to leave school sick must first be seen by the nurse or health care provider and follow their recommendations, otherwise the absence may be considered unexcused.
•The parent/legal guardian is the initial contact.
•If the initial contact is unable to be reached, persons authorized on the student’s demographic information sheet will be contacted.
PARENT RESPONSIBILITIES:
Parents are encouraged to observe their children for signs of disease or illness. Students identified (but not limited to) with the following symptoms must be excluded from school until symptom-free for 24 consecutive hours without the use of fever-reducing medication:
- fever • scaly patches on the scalp or skin
- diarrhea • open or draining sores or lesions
- vomiting • colored discharge from eyes or nose
- undiagnosed rash • intense itching red eye(s)
- presence of lice or nits (Students may be sent home for the presence of head lice/nits at the discretion of the nurse/health aide. Students may return to school after being treated at home and then re-checked and released by the school nurse/health aid.
RETURNING TO SCHOOL:
Students excluded from school for reason of communicable disease may be readmitted by one of the following methods:
•the student must be fever-free and symptom-free for 24 consecutive hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.
•documentation from the child’s physician states that the child may return to school and they are not infectious.
•documentation for readmission is issued by the local health authority.