If you suspect that your child is ill, please keep them home and have them checked with your health care provider before sending them to school. Parents often have questions regarding when a child should stay home from school due to illness. In general, AAS uses the following guidelines:
- Elevated temperature – above 99.5 F/37.5 C within the last 48 hours
- Vomiting – within the last 48 hours
- Diarrhea – within the last 48 hours
- Strep throat – must be on antibiotics for at least 24 hours before returning to school
- Nose discharge – thick, colored drainage (may need to be evaluated by a physician)
- Head lice – until treated with medicated shampoo or oil treatment and/ or no live lice found
- Chickenpox – stay home until all blisters have dried to scabs (about 6 – 10 days)
- Rash – stay home until the rash is diagnosed as non-contagious. Skin rashes may or may not be contagious. However, this diagnosis cannot be made at school. If a skin rash occurs, the child should remain at home and a physician contacted for diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
- Pink eye – refers to an inflamed eye. It often includes sticky discharge from the eye and pinkish tint to the sclera (whites of the eye). Prescription eye drops may be needed. Your child should receive the eye drops for 48 hours before returning to school. Contact your child’s physician for advice/treatment.
- Cough – repetitive coughing that interferes with child’s activity or play may need to be evaluated by a physician.
In cases where one of these conditions arises at school (i.e. elevated temperature, vomiting, diarrhea, draining/mattery eyes, skin rash), the parent will be contacted to take the child home. If the parent cannot be reached, one of your emergency contacts will be asked to pick up the child. School personnel are NOT able to transport students home. Please be sure to have all emergency contact information up-to-date.
If you have a family member sick with COVID - everyone in the family should be tested and quarantined. We definitely recommend staying home and getting tested if you are having any doubts about yours and your family’s health. Please, send your results to health.office@aas.ru so we could guide you through the situation.
We would also like to remind you that if one of your children is sick, his/her siblings should remain home as well, considering infectious/viral illnesses have the ability to spread very fast, even before your other children will show any symptoms/signs of it.
It is important that students who are unwell should not attend school. Upon their return to school, the student should bring written documentation from the health care provider indicating the diagnosis and information regarding the need for exclusion due communicability. For attendance purposes, if you would like the child’s absence to be marked as “excused”, they would need to provide a doctor’s note to the Divisional Office. Report all absences to your school division and if ill, remember to give specific details as to the reason for your child’s absence and presenting symptoms.
It would be greatly appreciated if parents of both returning and new students could complete and return all health information to the health office as soon as possible. This includes student health records, emergency contact numbers and documentation regarding immunizations/tests. All returning students were notified of any missing immunization/test requirements prior to summer vacation.
Medication - if a student needs to receive medication while at school, the medicine is to be delivered to the Health Office (room 1011) before school in the morning with a note from parent/guardian. The medication should be in a labeled container with the student’s name, medication name, dosage, and prescribed regimen. If medication contains a controlled substance (Ritalin, Codeine) the medication must be brought to the Health Office by a parent/guardian. NO STUDENT IS ALLOWED TO SELF-MEDICATE AND ALL MEDICINES MUST BE TAKEN UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE SCHOOL HEALTH OFFICE STAFF. THIS INCLUDES ASPIRIN, ANTACIDS, COUGH DROPS, NOSE/EYES DROPS.
Health Conditions - Students with health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, seizure disorders, or severe allergies need to have an updated plan of care, completed by you and your health care provider each fall (forms available in Health Office). Remember to have any prescriptions filled for medicines/inhalers/Epi-pens that you may not be able to purchase here in Moscow. We ask that all needed immunizations be administered by your family physician or health care provider.