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When To Keep Your Child Home From School

Guidelines For Parents On Keeping Ill Children At Home

Please do not send a child with the following symptoms to school:  
  • Cough, sore throat, headache, and/or body aches--keep your child at home for at least 24 hours--until their symptoms are mild and improving and they have not had a fever for 24 hours without using fever reducing medication.  Seek testing or treatment if they are higher risk.  

  • Fever of 100.4 or more-- your student should remain at home until  they have been fever free for 24 hours without the help of a fever reducing medication and their other symptoms are mild and improving.  

  • Vomiting–keep home if your child has vomited 2 or more times in the last 24 hours.  They may return to school when vomiting has ended overnight and they are able to hold down food and liquids. 
  • Diarrhea–keep home until feeling better and normal stools have resumed.
  • Cough with difficulty breathing–do not send your child to school if they have labored breathing, rapid breathing while at rest, wheezing, or a blue tinge to skin or nailbeds.  Take your child to an ER immediately with any of the above symptoms.
  • Antibiotics, first 24 hours–if your child has been prescribed antibiotics, they should take them for a full 24 hours before returning to school.  If your child requires antibiotics to be taken during school hours, the Authorization for Medication form (Forma en Español) must be completed by the doctor and the medication must be delivered to the school health office in the original container.
  • Rash that is undiagnosed.  Your child may attend school with mild symptoms.  They should stay home and seek medical attention if rash is worsening, causing pain, has blisters, or is not healing. 
  • Chicken Pox–keep your child at home until blisters are scabbed over and there are no signs of illness.
  • Impetigo–keep your child home for 24 hours after starting antibiotic treatment.
  • Ringworm–keep home until prescribed treatment is started.  Upon return to school, cover affected areas with clothing or a bandage.
  • Scabies–keep your child home until treatment prescribed by a medical doctor has been completed.
  • Lice policy–if your child has lice, please treat with an over the counter lice shampoo and comb out the nits using a lice comb or flea comb.  The school nurse will check your child’s head upon their return to school to confirm that no live lice remain.  Continue to comb out the nits daily for two weeks following the discovery of lice.  Vigilant combing out of nits is the best prevention of lice recurrence.   Please do not keep your child home multiple days for head lice.  They can be treated in the evening  and return to school the next morning.

If at any time you are unsure if your child’s illness is contagious, please call your child’s primary physician.  If you have further questions, please contact the school nurse at the school site.