I used to when I worked elementary. I would say, "At this time, I don't see a need to call your parents, but you're always welcome to come back if you don't feel better." A second visit will prompt a call, and surprisingly, they didn't always come back!
Now I'm in middle school and it's a lost cause as they will just call from their cell phones if I say no (as we've thoroughly discussed in other threads.) Unfortunately the parents in my community will pick up more often than not even if I state that the student has no symptoms requiring exclusion from school. I sense that some teachers think I call/allow students to call home too often (which yeah, I do) ... but in the same way that teachers send students with silly complaints down because they don't want the parent to come back and say, "Johnny said he asked to go to the nurse and you wouldn't let him and he was really sick when he got home!" ... I don't want to hear "Well my kid said he asked to call me and you wouldn't let him!" ... so I'll call if a student requests to.
Unfortunate effect of our society being over-litigious and also not teaching children that they can tough things out, providing "instant fixes" all the time. How about you? Have you found a good balance or remedy to this?
