Do you have a list?

My district has a form letter that is meant to be sent home at the start of cold/flu season. It has all the regular criteria: fever over 100.4, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. It also states that the child should stay home until they have been without fever for 24 hours and if fever persists for more than 2 days to seek medical attention.

I have yet to send it out school-wide. I just use them as handouts when a parent comes to pick up a sick kiddo. I have referenced this list to teachers who want me to send home a kid with seasonal allergies, a mild cough, etc., but I do not pass it out to them. It might not be a bad idea, though. Maybe for the start of next year I will put together a powerpoint with that as part of it.

As far as what they should send to the clinic, I do not like to say or even insinuate for them not to send a child to me. There are some teacher already who do not send kids and by the time they stagger in to see me they have fever 103 or look like warmed death. On the other hand, there are some teachers who send every little thing to me, which is totally annoying, but I guess I would rather see it and it be nothing than them not send it. I wish they would use more common sense about it, though. The hangnail is not a medical emergency by any means. I can just see it though, if I tell them not to send me hangnails there will be one teacher who does not send the kid with a festering MRSA infected wound on his finger. That is just the way it seems to go around here!

At the beginning of the year and sometimes in the middle of the school year I send out " health room hints" for the staff. It basically gives them a list of students that should or should not come to the HR. I also give them bandaids and gloves for the minor scrapes and injuries.

For parents I send a letter stating whats in the above post regarding fevers and etc.

We sent out a list recently for all the kids to take home. It covers the basics of when to send, when to keep home. We have had a lot of positive feedback from parents -- sometimes it's a tough call when it's time to leave for school, and it gives them something concrete to go by. They have also pointed out that's it's nice to be able to show their kid who wants to stay home for vague reasons, "Look -- this says that you can go to school!"

National Association of School Nurses http://www.nasn.org has a flyer you can send home to parents:

When sickness strikes:

http://www.nasn.org/Portals/0/resources/flu_eng_sickness.pdf