Exeter-Milligan Public School Health Policy - Communicable and Nuisance Diseases:
Children returning to school after one of the communicable childhood diseases such as mumps, measles or chickenpox, should have if at all possible a permit slip from the family doctor. If it is impossible to get a permit slip use good common sense before bringing a child back to school. One good guideline to follow is a child's temperature should be normal for 24 hours after an illness.
We request these precautions for the following reasons:
1. A child runs the risk of serious complications if they do not get the proper rest or exposes themselves to severe weather conditions by returning too soon after an illness.
2. Recovery from any acute illness takes place more quickly if the patient remains inactive for a reasonable length of time.
3. A child's school work suffers when they do not feel well and frequently they cannot keep up with the others.
4. If we make sure that children with contagious conditions stay away until free of contagion, we may prevent the exposure of the other children at school. We should also try to do so for these reasons:
a. By avoiding the disease, we avoid complications.
b. A child who misses a week or more of school, even in the lower grades misses a lot of detailed call instruction.
c. When disease reaches "epidemic" proportions it can disturb the continuity of subject material for the whole class. (We are aware that some exposure does take place before anyone realizes what is developing.)
The great majority of parents will make the best decisions in the interest of their children, but some find it difficult to judge the proper time for re-admittance.
a. Working parents may rush re-entry because it is difficult to arrange to stay home with the child and expensive to hire a special sitter.
No medications can be given by school personnel unless there is written permit from the parent and the medication must be well labeled by a pharmacy.