Symptoms & Guidelines

These guidelines should be enforced for the comfort and safety of all of our Kennedy students:

Children who have the following symptoms should stay home and not come to school until these symptoms have been gone for at least 24 hours without the help of medication, or until your doctor sends a note that states the condition is not contagious and it is OK for your child to come back to school.

Symptom: Things to consider and do before sending your child off to Kennedy Academy ... 

If your child is spending all his or her time at school feeling sick, then not much learning is taking place!

FEVER 
Fever
  •  Check your child’s temperature with a thermometer, and if a fever over 100 degrees is present, please do not send him or her to school, even for just a little while in the morning 
    • It doesn’t help your child’s health to give medicine for fever and send them on to school…that only reduces the fever for a short period of time and doesn’t take care of the illness that is causing the fever
    • Coming to school sick (and possibly contagious) not only exposes other children to the illness but also delays your child’s healing time.  Once the medicine wears off and the fever returns, your child must be picked up anyway, and valuable healing time has been lost.  
  • Children must be fever-free for 24 hours, without the use of medicine, before returning to school.
VOMITING &/or DIARRHEA
Upset Stomach
  •  Until we know that these are not signs of a contagious illness, such as a stomach virus, your child should be kept home. 
    • Consider how uncomfortable these two things are, even to an adult who has better control, and how distressed and embarrassed your child will be at school having to go to the restroom often, or feeling sick while sitting at his/her desk.  
  • If the vomiting or diarrhea happen more than once that day, or if they are associated with fever, you should keep your child home.  
  • Even if these things happen only one time before school starts, and your child feels better immediately afterward, it is still wise to watch for a few hours to see if it happens again before sending him or her on to class.
  • If your child is spending all his or her time at school feeling sick, then not much learning is taking place!
SKIN RASHES
Skin Rashes
  • If the rash has any fluid or pus coming from it, the child should remain out of school until the rash has been treated and a note from the doctor states it is ok to return to school, or until the rash is gone, dried, or scabbed over with no new spots appearing.  
    • Anytime a rash is associated with fever, the child may not come to school until that fever is gone for 24 hours without medication. 
      • Sometimes a rash is a sign of a contagious disease such as chickenpox.
      • Sometimes, rashes are not contagious but are uncomfortable and itchy from contact with something the child is allergic to. 
  • In this case, although the school is certainly a good option, please consider comfort measures such as an antihistaminefollowing the district policy for medication administration at the school and discussing possible treatment with your doctor and/or the school nurse.

RED EYES 
("pink eye")
 
Pink Eye

  • ESPECIALLY IF THERE IS ALSO 
    • DRAINAGE 
    • CRUSTING AROUND THE EYE
  • This can often mean your child has conjunctivitis, also known as pink-eye.  
  • Not all pink-eye is contagious.
  • Sometimes it is just allergies or other irritations that are causing the red color, but until we know for sure, which means we must have a note from the doctor stating the condition is not contagious, or until the redness and drainage are completely gone, your child should remain out of school.

PEDICULOSIS Lice 

  • HEAD LICE
  •  SCABIES
  • These small insects cause skin conditions that are uncomfortable and itchy and could become infected. 
  • State law requires that students with these conditions be excluded from school.
  • Check with the school nurse to get information on treatment and when your child may return to school if those conditions are present. 
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