Too Sick for School?
Deciding when a child is too sick to go to school can be a difficult decision to make. When trying to decide, use these guidelines to help make the best decision.
- General: If your student seems ill and/or is too fatigued to participate in school, please keep them home and allow them to rest
- Fever: Keep a child home if they have a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Students must be fever-free for 24 hours, without fever-reducing medicine (like Tylenol), before returning to school.***
- Sore throat: Be mindful of sore throats, especially those with a fever or swollen glands in the neck. If your child has strep throat, they can return to school after 24 hours of appropriate treatment.
- Vomiting: Keep a child home if they've thrown up two or more times in a 24-hour period. Students should stay home for 24 hours after the last time they vomited.
- Diarrhea: Two or more loose stools in a 24-hour period. Students should stay home for 24 hours after the last watery stool.
- Nasal discharge/cough: Extensive nasal drainage and/or coughing may prevent your child or other students from being able to concentrate. They may expose others to illness, especially if they cannot control their secretions.
- Rash: Widespread rashes with an unknown cause should be evaluated by a healthcare provider, especially if they come with a fever or other illness.
- Eye Redness: Eyes that have matted or crust on the eyelids after sleep, mucus or pus drainage, redness, and pain should be evaluated by a healthcare provider for possible "pink eye" or conjunctivitis.
If you would like to talk in more detail about a situation with your student, please contact your school nurse.
***Added 3/9/20: Based on recent guidance from Public Health agencies: if a student has a fever and cough or fever with shortness of breath, even without a known exposure to the novel coronavirus, they should stay home from school for 72 hours after the fever is gone and symptoms get better.