Temperatures over testing: Please keep children home when they are sick

This year’s cold and flu season has hit our schools hard. If your child(ren) have had any kind of upper respiratory virus, stomach bug, or otherwise, you know just how miserable they can be.

Although this is prime time for illness, it’s also time when many schools do yearly testing. If a child misses school because of illness during testing, the test(s) can be made up when your child is well and feeling better. When children are well they will be able to more accurately demonstrate their learning on the test, as opposed to coming to school when they are ill.sick little boy with thermometer, laying on bed

The Johnston Community School District school nurses have seen an increasing number of children who are coming to school medicated in the morning (with Tylenol or Ibuprofen), and becoming feverish by mid-morning. Some parents have expressed a fear of their child missing school because of testing or because they don’t want to have an absence.

As parents and health professionals, the school nurses are asking that children be kept home if they are feeling ill or exhibiting any of the following signs:

  • A temperature of 100 degrees or more in the past 24 hours (without the use of fever-reducing medicine)
  • Vomiting or diarrhea in the past 24 hours
  • A bacterial infection (strep throat, impetigo, etc.) that has not been treated with antibiotics for 24 hours
  • Severe cough or cold
  • Unexplained rash or skin eruptions
  • A communicable disease (chicken pox, etc.) that has not received written authorization from your doctor for readmission to class
  • An ailment that would impair your child’s learning (severe stomach pain, ear infections, etc.)

The health and well-being of our students is of far greater value than a test score. Please take the time to fully evaluate your child’s health before sending them to school if they are exhibiting signs of illness. Together, we can contain the spread of germs in our schools and work toward a healthy 2018.

If your child will be absent, please call school before the day starts and provide your child’s name, teacher, and reason for the absence. You may call before school hours and leave a message on the voice mail.  If your child is absent for more than one day, please call the school each day.