Parents are abusing my sign-out book

[Buggus]

If a student comes to the clinic and I feel that it's necessary to send them home, the parent can sign them out from my clinic and they are counted present for the day, even if they've only been at school for a few minutes. Well, I'm having parents that know this that are sitting in the office waiting for me to arrive at 7:30, and the moment I walk in, they want me to evaluate their kid. Some of them bring them in obviously sick and tell me so: Johnny just vomited 3 times before we got here but I wanted you to take a look at him first and see if you think he's ok to stay in class”, or He had a fever all night/all morning but I wanted you to check first”. It's usually the same parents that are coming in doing this over and over. I started telling these parents that if their kid is sick, that they shouldn't bring them to school and so I started declining to sign them out since I saw them before school started. Front office staff says it's actually ok for me to sign them out even before school as long as I've evaluated them but I said NOOO, this is ridiculous because how can I sign them out of school if school hasn't even started? So then these parents started waiting until the bell rings and immediately step in to my clinic to say Johnny threw up, has fever/whatever, can you pull him out of class and check on him to see if he needs to go home?” They're doing this on purpose so that their kids aren't counted absent and therefore parents don't have all these absences building up that they have to answer for or so that their kids' perfect attendance record isn't ruined. I can't really refuse to send the kid home because they really shouldn't be there, but I can't stand that they are abusing my sign-out abilities this way and in the process are putting the rest of the kiddos at risk, not to mention dragging their own sick kid out of bed and into school just for the sake of attendance. Have y'all dealt with this and what did you do to discourage it?

[caliotter3]

I haven't had to deal with this. How I would deal with it is to reverse my policy. When the kid is sent home, from that point on, count it as an absence for the day. It is not your responsibility to assist the parents in circumventing attendance rules (and laws).

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Any child not present for 4hrs is absent. Period per state mandate. No half days in most districts. So much that 3h 55min is absent. The only excused absences are for take your child to work or religious. Otherwise it's truant or non/truant absences. Nurse only declares parent or provider notes as acceptable

[Buggus]

The "present for the day as long as they're signed out from the clinic" rule is not my policy, it's the district policy. The only time it is counted as an absence is if I sign them out as a parental choice meaning I do not feel it's necessary to send a student home but the parent chooses to take them home out of convenience or whatever other reason (ex: parent prefers to take student who peed their pants home rather than bring a change of clothes because they don't want to make another trip later to pick up the kid). If the kid is actually sick, I can't sign them out as a parental choice because they really can't stay in school. I can't send them back to class because I KNOW they are sick and they need to go. So I feel like I'm just left wide open for abuse of my sign-out book.

I was just now thinking that I might start telling them that they do need to go home but that the student needs to be signed out as a parental choice because the parent chose to bring them even though they were obviously sick. But I think what'll happen is that either A) claim that they had no idea that the kid shouldn't be at school and that's why they wanted me to give the final word, therefore they should be allowed to sign them out with me rather than take an absence or b)just let them come to school sick, tell them to go to the nurse right when class starts and say they don't feel well and get sent home that way, even though it exposes the other kids and staff to illness (this one's already happened before). Sigh...I just wish there was a way to discourage it, but since it's the district policy to count them present for the day by signing out through the clinic, I can't think of a way.

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Wow, I never had that kind of power as the school nurse.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

sounds like your district is complicit basically in fraud. they want the numbers to justify funding...

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Wow. In my state it's the state DoE that sets regulations on school day length and absence. District policy cannot override. Does anyone in administration know of this abuse of policy or are they complicit?

[Buggus]

I don't think they're "complicit" or trying to be fraudulent but it's definitely a problem, at least at my school, and I am planning on meeting with my admins to see if there is a way that I can get around this since the parents are taking advantage of this policy. I hate to see a kiddo racking up absences because they are sick and it's beyond their control but I can't stand that their parents are willing to put everyone else at risk just to avoid accepting an absence. I'm guessing they have had truancy issues before and found a loophole now.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Parents bringing children knowingly sick to school technically can be considered medical neglect. That's what a nurse I know used to get admin to back her up. Enough children reported to CPS can trigger an institutional investigation. Not that the school really has a say in parental choice. But admin drafted a policy and sent it home. Children who arrive to school sick will be marked absent and sent home

[BeachsideRN, ASN]

Parents bringing children knowingly sick to school technically can be considered medical neglect. That's what a nurse I know used to get admin to back her up. Enough children reported to CPS can trigger an institutional investigation. Not that the school really has a say in parental choice. But admin drafted a policy and sent it home. Children who arrive to school sick will be marked absent and sent home

I was thinking along this line also ... Are they bringing said child to you instead of the pediatrician? If a child is sick and has a note from MD wouldn't that be considered excused absence as well?

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

I was thinking along this line also ... Are they bringing said child to you instead of the pediatrician? If a child is sick and has a note from MD wouldn't that be considered excused absence as well?

It's excused but not according to the DoE absences for anything other than take your child to work day or for one of the dozens of religious observances (every thing from Wiccan to Muslim to Eastern Orthodox Christian to obscure Catholic Saint feasts are listed) are classified as absent counts toward truancy or absence not truant. So since there is no benefit in sending a child to school to be sent home by the nurse it really doesn't occur.

[OyWithThePoodles, RN]

Our district policy is that the child has to be present for so many hours that day...This is why when it starts snowing like crazy they will wait as long as possible before sending the kiddos home. I would talk to your school administrators if not the Board of Education, I agree that this is a serious issue. Or...if they bring the child in and say they are vomiting/fever, keep them in your office until you witness the vomiting/fever yourself and send the parent on their way (maybe parents are stretching the truth). That way if the student is there for 30-40 minutes without vomiting/fever/etc. you can send them back to class feeling reassured in your assessment...OR make the parent come all the way back to pick them up. That might stop them from abusing sign-outs, just a thought. That policy really stinks though.