• When Should My Child Stay Home?                                                                    

    To report an absence related to illness please call the attendance line @ 206-393-4378.

    Contagious illness is always with us and can be spread in a variety of ways.  We are trying to ensure that all of our students and staff stay as healthy as possible. Hand washing is the number one way to reduce the spread of illness. We are reminding students to be diligent in washing their hands while at school. Getting enough sleep at night and good nutrition also play a role in staying healthy. 

    When your child is ill, he/she exposes other students and staff when he/she comes to school sick. If your child has any of the symptoms below, please keep him/her at home until the symptoms subside. These are the same guidelines that the school nurse uses to evaluate students who may need to go home: 

    • General: If your student seems ill and/or is too fatigued to participate in school, please keep them home and allow them to rest
    • Fever: Keep a child home if they have a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Students must be fever-free for 24 hours, without fever-reducing medicine (like Tylenol), before returning to school.***
    • Sore throat: Be mindful of sore throats, especially those with a fever or swollen glands in the neck. If your child has strep throat, they can return to school after 24 hours of appropriate treatment.
    • Vomiting: Keep a child home if they've thrown up two or more times in a 24-hour period. Students should stay home for 24 hours after the last time they vomited.
    • Diarrhea: Two or more loose stools in a 24-hour period. Students should stay home for 24 hours after the last watery stool.
    • Nasal discharge/cough: Extensive nasal drainage and/or coughing may prevent your child or other students from being able to concentrate. They may expose others to illness, especially if they cannot control their secretions.
    • Rash: Widespread rashes with an unknown cause should be evaluated by a healthcare provider, especially if they come with a fever or other illness.
    • Eye Redness: Eyes that have matted or crust on the eyelids after sleep, mucus or pus drainage, redness, and pain should be evaluated by a healthcare provider for possible "pink eye" or conjunctivitis.

    If you would like to talk in more detail about a situation with your student, please contact your school nurse.

    ***Added 3/9/20: Based on recent guidance from Public Health agencies: if a student has a fever and cough or fever with shortness of breath, even without a known exposure to the novel coronavirus, they should stay home from school for 72 hours after the fever is gone and symptoms get better.

     

    It is not unusual for students to feel better in the morning and then worse as the day goes along. The school is not equipped for prolonged care of your sick child. We request that you or an emergency contact will pick up your sick child within the hour that you are called. It is important for the school to have a list of local emergency contacts that are available to pick up your child in the event that we are not able to reach you. Please notify the school if there are changes to your contacts.


    We need everyone's cooperation, to be better able to provide a healthy learning environment for our students and staff members.