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The Student Emergency Form is required each year to collect student health information and consent for emergency care. This form also provides you the opportunity to give permission for over the counter medications during school hours. The district now utilizes an online Student Emergency Form. A receipt will be automatically sent to the email address of the parent/guardian who submits the form. Please complete a new form each school year and as information changes.
Please note that the form needs to be completed in one sitting (i.e. you cannot save and return to complete) and a Google email is not required.
General Guidelines for School Attendance
Please call the health office before sending your child to school if you have any questions or need help determining whether your child is well-enough to attend school.
Health Protocols for Illness
Please keep your child home from school if they display any of the following symptoms:
Fever of 100 degrees or more, and until the child has had a normal temperature for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.
Vomiting or diarrhea within the last 24 hours.
Uncontrollable or severe cough.
Rash of unknown cause.
Signs of infection of the eyes, ears, nose, throat, skin or scalp.
Please follow these guidelines when determining whether or not your child is ready to return to school after having been sick.
Temperature must be normal for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.
At least 24 hours after intestinal illness (vomiting or diarrhea) has resolved.
Improvement or treatment of cough following primary care provider instructions
Improvement or treatment of rash following primary care provider instructions
Treatment of infection following primary care provider instructions for return to school.
Please remember, though your student may meet the above criteria, they may not have the energy level for return to school and full day of activity.
If your child becomes ill at school, you will be called to take them home. We understand the difficulties of working parents and ask that you make sure you are prepared for this possibility. Waiting for hours in the Health Office is very difficult for children who are not well. Current phone numbers and email addresses are essential to facilitate prompt communication with families. Families need to provide the school with reliable emergency contacts, indicating individuals who will be able to come to the school and pick up their child if they become sick during the school day. Please update and submit an Emergency Medical Form for each child, every school year. Dismissing sick children in a timely fashion is imperative for the safety of all.
Please contact your school nurse if you have any questions or concerns.
Lunenburg Public Schools
Respiratory Virus Guidelines
On March 22,2024, DPH updated their guidance for management of respiratory illnesses Staying home to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses | Mass.gov to align with those previously released by the CDC on updated recommendations for respiratory viruses, including COVID-19. This new guidance is for respiratory viruses like Influenza, RSV, and COVID-19 as they share similar transmission methods, symptoms, and prevention strategies. This unified approach aims to simplify recommendations and address common risks more effectively.
Effective 3/29/24, Lunenburg Public Schools has transitioned to new Respiratory Virus Guidelines that follow both CDC and MA DPH guidance.
The new CDC guidance for respiratory virus:
Stay home and away from others if you have any respiratory virus symptoms. These symptoms can include fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, and headache, among others.
Return to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:
Your symptoms are getting better overall, and
You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication)
When you go back to your normal activities, take added precaution over the next 5 days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when you will be around other people indoors.
Keep in mind that you may still be able to spread the virus that made you sick, even if you are feeling better. You are likely to be less contagious at this time, depending on factors like how long you were sick or how sick you were.
In addition to CDC’s Respiratory Virus Guidance, there are several special considerations for people with certain risk factors for severe illness, including older adults, young children, people with weakened immune systems, people with disabilities, and pregnant people.
CDC recommends that all people use core prevention strategies. These are important steps you can take to protect yourself and others:
Stay up to date with immunizations. Get vaccinated for flu and COVID-19
Practice good hand and respiratory hygiene
Stay home when you may have a respiratory virus:
Seek health care promptly for testing and/or treatment if you have risk factors for severe illness; treatment may help lower your risk of severe illness
Wear Masks around others
Avoid crowded areas and maintain Physical distancing
Get Tested for flu and COVID-19 so you can get treated
Updated 3/29/24
The district has partnered with Care Solace. This service is to assist with mental health needs of staff, students, and families. Every person deserves access to mental health care. Care Solace navigates the mental health care system to find available providers matched to specific needs - so you don't have to. Please reach out to your school’s nurse, guidance counselor or social worker for additional information.
Bright Eyed is a wonderful community service that supports students at school. The mission is to provide food kits to local students in need every Friday, offering support for the weekend when school meals are not available. Bright Eyed, Inc. provides children with non-perishable food items to take home with them for the weekend. The food kits include items such as juice boxes, oatmeal, cereal, apple sauce, fruit cups, canned ravioli, soup, macaroni and cheese, pudding cups, fruit snacks, granola bars, crackers, goldfish, and cookies. The food kits are discreetly given to the children each week to take home in their backpacks and will continue throughout the school year. All children deserve to have access to the necessities that will help them grow and develop. In addition, hygiene kits including age appropriate items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, soap, shampoo/conditioner, and other personal care items are distributed two to four times per year.
To enroll in the Bright Eyed program, please download, print, fill out, sign and return the two documents. The documents can either be delivered to the school nurse or mailed to the Bright Eyed mailing address at 945 Massachusetts Avenue, Unit 124, Lunenburg, MA 01462
Massachusetts Mandated Health Screenings
Schools are required by Massachusetts General Law (M.G.L. Chapter 71, Section 57 and 105 CMR 200.000) to provide vision, hearing, body mass index (BMI), postural, and Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) health screenings to all students.
Students entering Kindergarten are required by Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 71 and Section 57, to have had a vision screening by a physician.
Vision: Annually in grades 1 through 5, once in grades 6 through 8, and once in grades 9 through 12
Hearing: Kindergarten through grade 3 and once in grades 6 through 8 and once in grades 9 through 12
Heights and Weights: Heights and weights are measured and body mass index (BMI) is calculated on children in grades 1, 4, 7 and 10.
Postural Screening: The state of Massachusetts mandates that all students in grades 5 through 9 be screened for scoliosis. Parents will be notified if referral is needed.
SBIRT: Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment is done once in grades 6 through 8 and once in grades 9 through 12. The screening uses the CRAFFT tool as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Substance Abuse. Student screening sessions will be brief and conducted confidentially in a private, one-on-one session.
The CRAFFT-II Screening Interview
Parents/guardians will be notified prior to the screenings taking place and may opt out of any of the screenings. Parents may choose not to have their child participate in any or all screenings. Please notify your school nurse in writing within the first two weeks of school if you wish for your child to opt out of a screening. This must be done annually.
Parents/guardians will be notified if a referral is necessary. Included in this notification will be a request for a report from your health care provider of their findings so that the nurses are aware of any problems which may interfere with learning and can accommodate any needs that are identified.
If your child is receiving treatment for a vision, hearing, or postural concern, please provide your school nurse with current medical documentation of their condition.
Lunenburg High School
9th grade Postural
10th grade Hearing, Vision, Height and Weight, SBIRT screening
10th, 11th and 12th grade SBIRT survey
Massachusetts School Immunization Requirements 2024-2025
Requirements apply to all students, including individuals from other countries attending or visiting classes or educational programs as part of an academic visitation or exchange program. Requirements apply to all students in every grade, even if they are over 18 years of age.
Grades 7–12†
In ungraded classrooms, Grade 7 requirements apply to all students ≥12 years.
Tdap
1 dose; and history of DTaP primary series or age-appropriate catch-up vaccination; Tdap given at ≥7 years may be counted, but a dose at age 11–12 is recommended if Tdap was given earlier as part of a catch-up schedule; Td or Tdap should be given if it has been ≥10 years since last Tdap
Polio
4 doses; fourth dose must be given on or after the 4th birthday and ≥6 months after the previous dose or a fifth dose is required; 3 doses are acceptable if the third dose is given on or after the 4th birthday and ≥6 months after the previous dose
Hepatitis B
3 doses; laboratory evidence of immunity acceptable; 2 doses of Heplisav-B given on or after 18 years of age are acceptable
MMR
2 doses; first dose must be given on or after the 1st birthday, and second dose must be given ≥28 days after first dose; laboratory evidence of immunity acceptable
Varicella
2 doses; first dose must be given on or after the 1st birthday and second dose must be given ≥28 days after first dose; a reliable history of chickenpox* or laboratory evidence of immunity acceptable
Meningococcal Requirements
Grade 7–10
1 dose; 1 dose MenACWY (formerly MCV4) required; Meningococcal B vaccine is not required and does not meet this requirement
Grade 11–12‡
2 doses; second dose MenACWY (formerly MCV4) must be given on or after the 16th birthday and ≥ 8 weeks after the previous dose; 1 dose is acceptable if it was given on or after the 16th birthday; Meningococcal B vaccine is not required and does not meet this requirement
§ Address questions about enforcement with your legal counsel. School requirements are enforced at the local level.
† Medical exemptions (statement from a physician stating that a vaccine is medically contraindicated for a student) must be renewed annually at the start of the school year, and religious exemptions (statement from a student or parent/guardian, if the student is <18 years of age, stating that a vaccine is against sincerely held religious beliefs), should be renewed annually at the start of the school year.
* A reliable history of chickenpox includes a diagnosis of chickenpox or interpretation of parent/guardian description of chickenpox by a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or designee.
‡ Students who are 15 years old in Grade 11 are in compliance until they turn 16 years old.
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