For all students to fully benefit from learning experiences at school, students should attend school on time, every day, ready to learn. However, there are times when a student should not be in school for health reasons.
“Our nursing team knows that sometimes it can be hard for families to tell if they should keep their children home,” said Director of Health, Wellness, and Nursing Cynthia Carbone. “So we created an easy-to-follow chart to help families know when to send their children to school, when to keep them home, when they can return to school after they’ve been out, and to call their doctor or school nurse if they have questions or need help.”
The district’s at-a-glance chart provides a broad overview. Please refer to the Health, Wellness, and Nursing page on the district website for more in-depth information.
Four things to keep in mind:
Families are encouraged to contact their school nurse or health care provider if they are uncertain whether to send their children to school for health reasons.
Families should notify the school nurse if their children are diagnosed with any type of contagious illness or condition, including COVID-19, influenza (the flu), RSV, pertussis, measles, chickenpox, strep throat, meningitis, MRSA, scarlet fever, head lice, mononucleosis, norovirus, pneumonia, rabies, shigellosis, tuberculosis, West Nile virus, EEE, Zika virus, giardiasis, Mpox, etc. In addition, families should make sure their children’s immunizations are kept current.
School nurses can check students’ temperatures before school if families are unable to check their children’s temperatures at home. Families should call first to arrange, and the nurse will meet them at the door with a thermometer.
If students have medical appointments scheduled during the school day for reasons other than illness, they should plan to be in school before and/or after their appointments so they don’t lose valuable learning time.