When to Keep a Child Home From School
School is starting all over the U.S. Children are coming together in classrooms to learn… and to spread illnesses.
Children in schools often get sick. Sometimes they need to stay home. There are three main reasons to keep a child home from school and some guidelines for when this should be done.
1) Children who can make other children sick should stay home.
Illnesses with fevers are often contagious. Those with fevers over 100 degrees should stay home until it has broken naturally (without suppression with a fever reducer) for 24 hours. Those with rashes accompanied by fever or behavioral changes should also stay home.
Those students with blisters in their mouths that make them drool should stay home from school.
Likewise, those who vomit two or more times or have diarrhea that they cannot control should stay home (as should those who have blood or mucus in the diarrhea).
Certain illnesses have specific time periods for safe return to school. Strep throat, bacterial conjunctivitis and impetigo need 24 hours of treatment with antibiotics before the child can return to the classroom.
Whooping cough needs at least five days of treatment before the child returns.
For chickenpox, all the lesions should be crusted over and no new ones should be appearing before the child is no longer considered contagious.
Scabies and lice should be treated before the child comes back (ringworm, on the other hand, just needs to be covered in school).
2) Those children with symptoms that may affect their learning experience negatively should stay home.
Those with pain from a headache, earache or other cause that cannot be managed at school adequately should not come to class.
Students with a concussion that does not allow them to concentrate may need to stay home. A child who is lethargic or sleepy from staying up all night with an illness should also stay home.
3) Children who may disrupt the learning experience of others because of illness should stay home from school.
Those students with frequent coughing, wheezing or severe congestion should probably not be in class.
Exposure to illnesses is unavoidable in school. Hopefully, learning is unavoidable, as well.
These guidelines are a place to start when deciding whether to keep a child home from school, but they are not exhaustive. When in doubt, seek advice from your child’s health care professional.