That annoying time of year

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...when quite a few students are maxed out on their state allowed absences, are under scrutiny by truancy, and make it my problem. Just because you had a lot of illness in winter and fall or played hooky a lot does not mean you can come to school puking or febrile and head straight to the nurse for a magic note to go home. Nor can you sleep here all day because you think the point is just that your body has to be in the building to count. It has to be in class. (yes, a couple started this in November but yesterday and today seem really bad.)

I am NOT the truancy officer whisperer.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, school nursing.

This! I'm in a high school, and we take attendance each class period. I have seen so many kids in the clinic lately who either want to come and hang out all day, thinking it will excuse them from class (WRONG), or students who I have never seen before and are truly sick. When I call a parent, they won't come and get them because they have already received truancy letters.

Parents need to get some common sense and realize that students need to save their absences for when they are actually sick. I only get 7 paid days off per school year, and I know to ration those out so I don't end up with unpaid days at the end.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

Yes! I always wonder how these parents manage their own sick and vacation days at their jobs. Are they out by the second week in February?

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It all seem to start this week for me also. Then the parents get upset with me because if they call me or actually walk in to see if I will excuse their child I put it right back on them - stating they are the parent and they can decide to do whatever they want - if they want the leave early/absence excused they need a doctor's note - and many of the parents don't want to do that.

Once the kid gets put on "THE LIST" for having too many marks for tardy/absent I only excuse if they can't be here due to policy - basically just fever, diarrhea, pink eye & vomiting.

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11 minutes ago, AdobeRN said:

Once the kid gets put on "THE LIST" for having too many marks for tardy/absent I only excuse if they can't be here due to policy - basically just fever, diarrhea, pink eye & vomiting.

That's all I excuse for, but ick, stop sending them when you know this has been going on all night or I sent them home for the same thing yesterday!

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I am in K-3 and this is happening here as well. I have a K student who has 41 absences!!! We reported her for school neglect. DCF did NOTHING! So no longer my problem. And we have State Testing coming up and there are families who are pulling their kids an extra week to add to April vacation so they have more time to fly home to their countries and don;t understand why school is upset.

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Specializes in School nurse.

SAME here!

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Slightly off topic. I am new commenting but have, since I started school nursing back in 2015, have read you guys posts to get ideas and understandings because I was not trained when I started. (Thank yall!!!) The old SN had to leave before I could come. Do you guys write excuses for student to miss PE and such? Shouldn't that come from an MD? I had one come to me this morning asking me to write him an excuse for PE because he was doing drills in JROTC and hurt one of his elbows while army crawling... When he first presented to me he voiced concern that he had broken his elbow (eye roll)...

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Specializes in School nurse.

We don't write PE excuse notes. Our policy allows a parent to write an excuse for up to 3 days and otherwise it has to be from a physician. We tell them they can ask their mom to write a note.
If you start doing that ERRYbody is going to want you to excuse them from PE.
Don't start that!

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Specializes in pediatrics, School LVN.
2 hours ago, SmallTownNurseSWL said:

Slightly off topic. I am new commenting but have, since I started school nursing back in 2015, have read you guys posts to get ideas and understandings because I was not trained when I started. (Thank yall!!!) The old SN had to leave before I could come. Do you guys write excuses for student to miss PE and such? Shouldn't that come from an MD? I had one come to me this morning asking me to write him an excuse for PE because he was doing drills in JROTC and hurt one of his elbows while army crawling... When he first presented to me he voiced concern that he had broken his elbow (eye roll)...

We don't write PE notes, but if one of the students at recess rolls an ankle or have other minor injuries that cause discomfort I will let the PE teacher know so they are aware and can adjust activity if the student seems to be struggling. Usually they are fine, but I just like to cover my bases.

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I almost never write notes. The exception is when they come in with ED paperwork stating that they have had xrays and a confirmed fracture or evaluation and a diagnosed concussion and a consult with ortho or neuro but the ED provider neglected to write activity restrictions. My note goes right to the PE teacher (and anyone supervising recess) and is good until the child has his/her follow up.

In the hospital I sometimes write notes when discharging that are also dated until their follow-up but I stress that no gym=no recess so less is better!

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Specializes in school nursing.

I don't write notes. If it is a legitimate injury, I will write one for the day but let the student and parent know that I am not able to write medical excuse notes and they need to f/u with whoever to get a note.

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