Top Reasons Why Your Kids Should Stay Home From School

What are the guidelines for keeping your sick kids home from ? There might be more than you think.

Please call your school’s attendance line to report a school absence before the start of each school day. Include your child’s name, grade and the specific illness or symptoms. Extended absences may require a health care provider’s authorization to return to school. Students should return to school after fever, nausea and vomiting have ceased for 24 hours without the use of medications.   

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact the Registered Nurse at your child’s school.

 recently sent out this list of guidelines from the district. Please use this list to help you decide whether or not your little ones should stay home due to illness.

Children should stay at home if they have: 

—Any illness that prevents comfortable participation in school activities

—Illness that results in a greater need for care than the school can provide without compromising the health and safety of other children

—The presence of one or more of the following symptoms:

• Fever of 100 degrees or higher
• Difficulty breathing or a persistent cough
• Three or more loose stools
• Stool that contains blood or mucus
• Vomiting two or more times in the past 24 hours, unless the vomiting is determined to be caused by a non-communicable condition and the child is not in danger of dehydration (such as a sensitive gag reflex)
• Mouth sores that cause excessive drooling, resulting in the child’s inability to control his or her own saliva
• Rash with fever, until a physician has determined the illness is not a communicable disease
• Eye infections (conjunctivitis or pink eye with drainage), until examined by a physician and determined to not be communicable or until after 24 hours of antibiotic treatment
• Decreased activity level or if your child appears excessively tired
• Irritability or persistent crying

—Viral infections, which usually do not need any antibiotic treatments, are contagious until after a certain period of time:

• Chickenpox is contagious until all of the lesions have dried and are crusted over (usually six or seven days after the infection began)
• Hepatitis A is contagious until at least a week after the infection and jaundice began

—With many bacterial infections, it is safe to go back to school after appropriate treatments, including:

• 24 hours of antibiotic therapy for strep throat and impetigo (skin infection with sores)
• A single treatment for scabies and head lice
• Five days of antibiotics for whooping cough infections

Other infections that may necessitate prolonged exclusion from school include:

—Tuberculosis: children should be excluded until properly treated and the health department confirms they are no longer contagious

—Measles, Mumps, Pertussis                                                                                                       

—E. Coli and Shigella infections (until diarrhea resolves and the child has two stool cultures that don’t show an infection)

Children do not need to be excluded if:

—They have a mild upper respiratory tract infection, even if it is associated with green or yellow nasal discharge, as long as the child does not have a fever or any of the other symptoms described above

—Fifth disease (Parvovirus B19 infection), as they are no longer contagious once the rash appears

—Warts, or ringworm (must be covered with a bandage)

This list includes exclusion criteria in accordance with the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Rules and Regulations for Control of Communicable Disease, July 2002 and Illinois Department of Public Health, Communicable Diseases Guide, 2002 http://www.idph.state.il.us/health/infect/comm_disease_guide.pdf

This information is courtesy Batavia Public Schools.