Sick Student Policy

[AllieEmerson]

I am a new school nurse, and I'm trying to come up with policies for how we should handle children returning to school after being sent home due to illness. It's especially difficult during this pandemic to decide what is reasonable. I want to be cautious but not overly demanding to parents.

I do think any child with respiratory symptoms and/or a fever who is sent home should be required to stay home. But I'm struggling with some other gray areas. We had a child vomit once yesterday, and we sent him home. He had no fever or other symptoms. Is it acceptable for him to return today or should we ask that he stay home for 24 hours? I'm just trying to get some ideas of how other schools are handling children with non-covid related symptoms and what kind of policies you are putting in place for sick children.

[AllieEmerson]

Thank you so much for the replies. This is helping a lot as I'm getting a policy together to get staff on the same page at my school. It does seem to be best to take a "better safe than sorry" approach even if some parents and staff may have objections.

And as for your concern for my anonymity, this is not my real name.

[amoLucia]

Allie -TY for your comeback re your name. Just trying to be protective to newbies here to AN.

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

On 11/18/2020 at 3:28 AM, Jedrnurse said:

It's good to know about the "atypical" presentations - it makes being strict more palatable.

As to the kiddos coming back positive, how has it been going with the quarantining for their close contacts at school? Are you getting a lot of grief from the affected families? What's the impact been on staffing?

Most families have been pretty good about it. I have had a few who were rather unpleasant, and a few tried to send their kids back in to school thinking I wouldn't know about it... Surprise..... I find out within 15 minutes of the day starting..

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

23 hours ago, JenTheSchoolRN said:

This. And I've said this before, but most pediatric providers aren't doing sick visits in person in my state with any COVID symptoms - they are sending the kid out to be tested first. 

A parent let me know that one of our larger peds offices has a "COVID" waiting room and a "well" waiting room.  Her child had one mild symptom but still needed a test, and she was terrified to put her child & herself in the COVID waiting room.  All of the other peds offices that are providing tests are doing telehealth visit and walk up/drive up testing.  Luckily we were able to find somewhere else for her to have the test done.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

1 minute ago, BrisketRN said:

A parent let me know that one of our larger peds offices has a "COVID" waiting room and a "well" waiting room.  Her child had one mild symptom but still needed a test, and she was terrified to put her child & herself in the COVID waiting room.  All of the other peds offices that are providing tests are doing telehealth visit and walk up/drive up testing.  Luckily we were able to find somewhere else for her to have the test done.

I've been told that several pedi offices around here have a COVID testing tent in their parking lot. You go there at a scheduled time.