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 classâ€, or He had a fever all night/all morning but I wanted you to check firstâ€. 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?
This is an administration problem but I would be complaining to administration if I had parents sending sick kids to classrooms and infecting everyone else before they are signed out! Our district policy leaves this up to me (I am in charge of attendance as well). If someone leaves before they even get 15 min of instruction I mark them absent for the day. Sounds like your administration is playing games to make attendance numbers look good. I would make sure to document on your sign out how this is happening. Good luck!
Ours (HS) is done by the actual class for credit purposes. If they arrive after 2nd block they are only present for 3-5 block. Or if they are continually dismissed after lunch they are present for periods 1-4......
but the actual attendance percentages are in half days with the split @ 11 AM.
Interesting, I may need to noodle around guidance and ask about this.
I oversee attendance, as well as the administrators. The child that goes home before lunch is absent for the day, make it to lunch or after and you get a half day. Not sure if your policy is school or district specific, but it is ripe for abuse, as you point out. Sad commentary on our culture that people will attempt to find the loophole. Hope you can be the agent of change that sounds like needs to be done. Good luck.
I oversee attendance, as well as the administrators. The child that goes home before lunch is absent for the day, make it to lunch or after and you get a half day. Not sure if your policy is school or district specific, but it is ripe for abuse, as you point out. Sad commentary on our culture that people will attempt to find the loophole. Hope you can be the agent of change that sounds like needs to be done. Good luck.
Our Golden Hour is 9:50; leave after that you are present - arrive before that you are tardy. However, in Texas, a tardy carries the same weight as an absence.
Specializes in Telemetry, Gastroenterology, School Nrs.
I would start telling the parents you don't mind to see them but you will not be signing them out, since they brought them in knowing they were sick. If they already know it, they don't need your nursing opinion to confirm it. Will your administration consider changing the policy?
For my school is by class period; if you can make 4 out of 7 class periods, you are considered present. If I dismiss you before then, you are absent - unexcused without a doctor's note/written note from me.
However, parents know this and I sometimes have to argue with them that yes, your child is sick enough to pick up now and no they cannot just lie down in my office until the end of 4th period to be considered present. Luckily, the principals back me if needed.
I don't understand how a child that doesn't even make it to class can be considered present to me. Sounds like attendance fraud - are your school's attendance numbers an issue for that to be a policy?
Our parents do that with kids who are constant truancy problems. They are magistrate ordered to be in school, but if the nurse sends them home they are excused. The difference for me is most of these kids are not sick. Just don't want to be in school and parent doesn't want to be fined for truancy.
I tell parents I have a criteria that I have to meet..if they have a fever, actively vomiting IN my office (not in bathroom and they "flushed" it), or active diarrhea IN MY OFFICE. If they don't meet that criteria, they are MORE than welcome to sign their child out but it will count as an absence. If they say, (and they do), "but He is sick", I say well then you had the option to keep him home but you chose to bring them in, so now I need to make the decision if they stay or go.
In my opinion, if your body is not in class - YOU ARE ABSENT! If you are absent, it can either be excused or unexcused. Seems pretty straight forward to me..
I let them know point blank that their kid needs to go - before the day even begins. No, it's not excused. When the parents gripe about that i explain that A. they knew their child was not fit for school when they set out on the day and B. That no, I do not have great power to excuse any and all absences - if my child (a student in my own school) is vomiting the night before, she is kept home as an unexcused absence.
I can relate! It hasn't gotten to the point where they are showing up before school but I've had a few (usually those with attendance issues) that parents send so I can send them home later. They say it's because they weren't sure but when the kid tells me mommy said let the nurse send me home then I know. In our district if the nurse sends a student home it's considered excused and doesn't count against the number of absences. I think it should still count. They allow a certain number of days for a reason. If it gets to the point of it being abused such as in your case, I think I'd start keeping track of how often this is being abused and then go to the higher ups to explain the problem and see about having that policy ammended.
Specializes in med-surg, IMC, school nursing, NICU.
What a strange policy. We don't do half days here. If you leave, it's an absence. It can be excused for a number of reasons with documentation. The only exception is if a student leaves in the middle of the day for less than 2 hours and comes back, it's not an absence. So dentist and MD appointments don't have to count against them.
You should discuss this abuse with administration. That's absurd. Like other posters said, approach it from a health concern standpoint. "If the parents are sending the kids to school sick for the sole purpose of picking them up, that is needlessly exposing students and staff to illness which could contribute to even more absences." The change needs to come from up above.
100kids, BSN, RN
878 Posts
This is an administration problem but I would be complaining to administration if I had parents sending sick kids to classrooms and infecting everyone else before they are signed out! Our district policy leaves this up to me (I am in charge of attendance as well). If someone leaves before they even get 15 min of instruction I mark them absent for the day. Sounds like your administration is playing games to make attendance numbers look good. I would make sure to document on your sign out how this is happening. Good luck!