Vague Absence Notes of illness

[CrazySchoolNurse]

Having to follow up with every student that sends a note/email stating "attending virtual due to illness.. not feeling well.. I'm sick"  Is anyone else doing the same? Do you have a standard message that you use?   

We are back in school 5 days in person, with an option to due virtual if they are not comfortable.  Because we have that virtual piece and have students that are doing virtual full time, sick days are something of the past.  Since every symptom of COVID is also a symptom of many numerous illness, the kids were instructed not to attend school with any type of symptom (of course now they listen) and if they are feeling up to it they may attend virtually for that day or days.   The students have to email their teachers that they are attending virtually and most of the time it is the statements above.    Because that is a blanket statement I have been requested to follow up with everyone of these notes/ emails to get more details on what is the symptoms/illness to verify when they may return to school.  

Is anyone else doing the same?  We are a small private school of only 260 students but I also have to follow up with faculty and staff when they are out sick.  

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

40 minutes ago, msilcox said:

The only thing that I am grateful for this year is that parents are actually following policies for the first time since I started working here.

 

Agreed.  For once I've found that if I just commiserate with them a bit and say "I know, it feels crazy sending these kids home with mild symptoms when last year I would have told them to go right back to class, but we can't be too careful with COVID,"  and the parents say they understand and appreciate what we're doing to keep the school open.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

58 minutes ago, BrisketRN said:

Agreed.  For once I've found that if I just commiserate with them a bit and say "I know, it feels crazy sending these kids home with mild symptoms when last year I would have told them to go right back to class, but we can't be too careful with COVID,"  and the parents say they understand and appreciate what we're doing to keep the school open.

OOHH Brisket. I am stealing that from you.

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

I am amazed that the schools are allowing this. My son is in 4th grade and we could choose, in-person or virtual. No hybrid option. We were specifically told that if our child attends in-person, and they miss a day of school, they can not just jump in to virtual learning for the day. If they’re out, they’re absent. It seems so chaotic to have them jumping in and out all the time!

[amoLucia]

Common sense, this. ^^^^

[CrazySchoolNurse, LPN]

Well I just became "that nurse"  we had a student test positive over the weekend.  Student (frequent flyer) came down with no real complaints and nothing to even send up a red flag.  I sent him back to class and didn't see the student the rest of the day.  Even was told student went to soccer practice and was just fine.  No real alarm right?!  Nope next day get a forwarded email "I took a turn for the worst and I feel absolutely horrible, Mom is taking me to be tested in the morning" Last day in school was Thursday. Sunday morning after working a 12 hr shift and getting home at 9am my phone starts going off the hook at about 1030.  Yep test came back positive.  Luckily we only had to quarantine 14 students (which is still a lot) and that includes siblings since that is our policy.

So I learned my lesson "EVERYONE GOES HOME" even if they are lying...

[AdobeRN]

What a nightmare for all (nurse and teachers) keeping up with kids in Face 2 face learning and those taking a day to do Virtual.

Our district gave parents a choice of either but they have to stick with that choice for the 9 week grading period.  At elementary level students will transition to Virtual only if they are Covid+ or Close contact quarantine, then they are assigned to a virtual class for the 10d or 14d.  When they finish quarantine time they return to their regular in person class - so far this has worked for us and parents are happy with it. 

 

 

[bluebonnetrn, BSN, RN]

[turtlesRcool]

On 9/30/2020 at 1:59 PM, ruby_jane said:

I believe our district doesn't let you go virtual for one day's illness. Or it would be madness and chaos...

I think it depends on what your district is doing for virtual learning.  If all the virtual kids are grouped together with virtual teachers, it wouldn't work. If your virtual learners are just dialing in to Google Classroom or Zoom and following along with the in-person class, then one more kid online doesn't make much difference to the teacher.  

Currently, our high school offers hybrid by cohort or completely virtual, so every day at least half of the students are attending online. At the middle and elementary levels, the choice is fully virtual or fully in-person, but they can do virtual on individual sick days. 

There is a new attendance code MRP (medical remote present), which requires parents to call the attendance/health line before the start of school to report reason for absence (nurse will follow up if necessary, just as for regular absences), then contact the teacher and/or follow login procedures for remote learning.  

Tomorrow we may get to try out one-day virtual learning, as the forecast looks like we're having our first snow day. This could become a virtual day for everyone rather than a day off.  Obviously, not something for the nurse to deal with, but it would give everyone an opportunity to go through the virtual procedure, and hopefully make it smoother for when kids stay home for illness.

[Queen of Icepacks, RN]

One of the teacher just mentioned that snow days are a thing of the past.  I don't think that the students have realized this yet.

[turtlesRcool]

8 minutes ago, Queen of Icepacks said:

One of the teacher just mentioned that snow days are a thing of the past.  I don't think that the students have realized this yet.

I don't think the parents have realized it yet, either.  I do worry for the kids who don't have access to a computer/internet or who don't have an adult at home to help facilitate lessons.  Is it just an unexcused absence if they don't log in?  Of my 3 kids, I have one who can get his work done on his own.  

[amoLucia]

14 minutes ago, Queen of Icepacks said:

One of the teacher just mentioned that snow days are a thing of the past.  I don't think that the students have realized this yet.

Just thought of that as I read this post!!

[k1p1ssk, BSN, RN]

On 10/2/2020 at 1:33 PM, msilcox said:

This has been a crazy/ stressful year.  I am willing to bet that more than half of our "illness", "not feeling well" and "sick" are I just don't feel like coming in today.   The worst part is that the parents are the ones enabling them to do this.  

The other thing that is driving me crazy is sending kids home for things you normally wouldn't.  Yesterday I had to send a kid home for a runny nose.  The runny nose (allergy related) was a nuisance and disruption due to having to take off the mask continuously to wipe or blow their nose.   The only thing that I am grateful for this year is that parents are actually following policies for the first time since I started working here.

 

This is so bad! Our district has basically said, if you are supposed to be in person and you take a sick day, you may log in to your remote classes, but you will still be marked absent. The only exception to this is if the student is under quarantine. The tricky part are the hybrid kids who attend every other day, and alternate Fridays.