USD 375 Health Policy Guides

To help provide a safe and healthy school environment for our students, children with the following signs and symptoms should not be allowed to attend school:

• Oral temperature of 99.6 degrees or greater, if accompanied with other symptoms of illness such as headache, sore throat, nausea, diarrhea, etc.
• Oral temperature of 100.2 degrees or greater, even if there are no other symptoms present.
• Vomiting, diarrhea and/or persistent nausea or abdominal pain.
• Diagnosis of strep throat that has not been under antibiotic treatment for 24 hours.
• Head lice, scabies, or impetigo.
• Symptoms of contagious diseases such as chicken pox, scarlet fever or hepatitis.
• Conjunctivitis (pink eye) swelling and inflammation of the eyelids, and purulent discharge.
• Excessive coughing, sneezing or runny nose with green or yellow mucous.
• If your child has received any type of sedation for medical or dental procedures, they should stay at home for the remainder of the day.

If your child has been absent due to any of the above conditions, he/she should not return to school until:

• Fever has been absent for 24 hours without administration of anti-fever medication.
• Nausea, vomiting or diarrhea has been absent for 24 hours.
• Strep throat has been treated with antibiotics for at least 24 hours.
• Head lice have been treated with lice shampoo according to package instructions and proof of purchase is provided to the school (receipt or box).
• Scabies treatment is successfully completed using prescription medication from MD.
• Lesions from impetigo are treated as your doctor advises and covered while in school if “weeping”. (Usually this involves soaking and removing the crusts and applying an antibiotic cream. Very large lesions may need an oral antibiotic, too). A release from your physician will be needed to return to school.
• No purulent discharge from conjunctivitis (pink eye).
• Chicken Pox lesions are all scabbed over and no new lesions have appeared in 48 hours.  This usually happens 6-8 days from the onset of the disease. This also applies to a diagnosis of shingles.
• Students with scarlet fever, hepatitis, or other illnesses or injuries deemed necessary by the school nurse need to be cleared by their doctor before returning to school.

Students who are absent because of an injury or a medical condition that prevents or limits participation in PE or recess, must have a note from their health provider describing the specific limitations.