School sick child policy

[Stephieann]

What is the average fever temp. that a child has to have for the school to call for you to pick a child up from schoo.

I had my DDs school call me to come pick her. They said she was running a low grade temp, complaining of her throat hurting, said she did not feel well, and that her eyes were runny... now all this was about 8:15. Well i leave work (20 miles away) to go pick her up. When i got there they said they send a child home yesterday with 99.2. Ok so i have picked he up now and after we get outside she starts running to the car. Get her home take her temp... guess what... NO FEVER...imagine that. I asked her if she felt bad... she said nope... so i have wasted half a day of work.(i am going back in about an hour.)
UPDATE
My child is 4 and was not faking it. The school RN said her throat was red and she was running a low grade temp. It was not the child saying this.!!!!

She went to the doctor and the doctor said there was nothing wrong with her and would not even prescribe her medications!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does anyone else have this problem?

 

[Marseeya]

No, our school would keep them sicker than I'd like because of attendance issues (No Child Left Behind).

My rule of thumb is if they have a temp above 99, they stay home. DD usually suffers from migraines and a fever goes with it.

 

[monarchsfan16]

My elementary/middle school wouldn't send us home unless our temp was up over a hundred. You could be throwing up but if your temp wasn't high enough, you were spending the rest of the day in class. Needless to say I never went to the nurse because it just wasn't worth it, since I rarely run a temp

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I think officially it's something like 100.5, but they also base it on how the child is feeling. If your DD was feeling poor they will err on the side of calling the parent. As a parent I've decided to send my child back to class. I'm talking my older kids, not elem age. Sometimes the schools are very quick to call home, especially with a child who does not have a history of always going to the health room. Of course I understand why they do that, but sometimes we end up at home with a child who is not sick.

 

[Skylarr29]

When I worked at a preschool ( which is obviously slightly different than public school) we were not allowed to call the parent unless the child was running a fever of 100 or more. We also would wait and have to take the temp a few times depending on what the child was doing ie. just woke up from nap, playing outside etc. We also only sent children home if they had a yellow or mostly green runny noise, or the threat of maybe pink eye or something. And if they were called to be picked up they could not return the next day wothout a doctors note.



I would call the school and tell them that your child has no fever and address the issue if you feel that she is in fact not sick. Did you go to the doctor or are you going to??? I would get a note saying she is fine (if at all possible) and talk to someone in the office about what there policy is so you know. It could be possible that they really thought she didnt feel good but I would be upset if my child really had no fever and no other symptoms.I would want them to ask me if I wanted to get her not ell me that I have to with no syptoms.Oh and I was the queen of having people pick me up early from school.(cough cough)

 

[NMAmy]

I'm assuming your dd told them that her throat hurt and she wasn't feeling well. I'm not sure why the school would be at fault. I'd prefer for the school to call and let me know if dd is sick and let me make the decision instead of them doing it.

 

[Bob Slydell]

Anything over 100 gets a call to us from DS's preschool. We have to come get them and also keep them out of school for at least a 24 hour period.

Unfortunately, that applies to everyone from infants up through pre-K, so last week, I had to go pick up DS2 for a 100.6 temperature. He was teething, not sick.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I am going back in time for this one, but I always felt as a SAHM if my child was feeling generally unwell after a normal morning, I wanted to know about it.. I would usually go to the school and pick them up... unless of course, they were faking it, which we still laugh about as they are now 35, 31, and 28...the youngest was the worse culprit for trying to get out of class. They were not ones for running temps, believe it or not, and they could be quite ill with no temp. I never figured that one out. Pneumonia, no temp, bronchitis, no temp, ear infections, no temp.

 

[Skywalker]

I'm assuming your dd told them that her throat hurt and she wasn't feeling well. I'm not sure why the school would be at fault. I'd prefer for the school to call and let me know if dd is sick and let me make the decision instead of them doing it.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I don't know if there is any official rule about this. If it was up to me, I'd say anything 100 degrees and over is justification for being sick. If it was my high school you could have a 103 degree fever and vomitting on their shoes and they still would not send you home. I am not joking, I knew a couple people who this happened too. Hence I never trusted the nurses office. If I felt too sick to be in school (which was close to never, I am a goodie goodie), I would call my mom and have her sign me out of school.

 

[Jennifer S]

I for one am glad they will send a sick child home. Not saying your daughter was sick but she did tell the school she wasn't feeling well. I think too many parents don't want to miss work so they give they child Tylenol and send them. My son has been sick three times already this school year and every time he caught it from the kid next to him- stomach bug, pink eye and then a cough and fever.

Why take a chance on infecting the rest of the class? There were six missing out of 19 one day last week.

Obviously this was not the case with you but I have seen others do it. I would rather a school send them home than keep them and get others sick.

 

[golfgal]

The official rule at our school is a temp over 100 and if you have vomited in the past 24 hours. The school nurse is pretty good about knowing when a kid is really sick. She will call and say that DD is complaining of a sore throat or what ever and then let you talk to the child. I usually do the "if you come home you have to say in bed and no tv" routine and if they say ok I know they are sick and I have to come get them. If they aren't all that sick they usually say they will try to stay in school longer.

 

[KAMLEM]

My kids' schools don't go strictly by fever. If the child really doesn't feel well they will call the parents. It sounds like your daughter was really complaining about not feeling well. Maybe she just wanted the day off?

 

[CheshireVal]

I'm assuming your dd told them that her throat hurt and she wasn't feeling well. I'm not sure why the school would be at fault. I'd prefer for the school to call and let me know if dd is sick and let me make the decision instead of them doing it.

I agree. If anything, maybe you should talk to your daughter about pretending to be sick!

 

[jbdreamer]

I don't understand why you are balming this on the school. You daughter went to the nurse because she didn't feel well. No matter what her temp the nurse saw she didn't feel well, so she called you. If you daughter was faking it, it's her fault. I'd punish her, the school should not be held responsible for wasting your time.

 

[daisyduck123]

I agree. If anything, maybe you should talk to your daughter about pretending to be sick!

I have to agree here. She obviously told her teacher she did not feel well. That's how she ended up at the health room.

On another point, someone mentioned sick kids being given Tylenol & sent on to school. Ohhh, the stories I could tell about that. A few years ago, I sent one girl home with over 101 temp. at about 2 p.m.

Well the next morning she showed up for school (they are to be fever free for 24 hours before they return). Well, I took her straight to the health room & we called the mom to come get her child. You see, we were about to leave on 3 hour field trip! I could not take a sick child on a trip. Well, the girl told us mom gave her Tylenol & sent her to school so she would not miss the trip. Can you imagine having someone else's child even sitting next to her on the bus to & from the play we were going to see, or rather sitting next to her in the auditorium?

Well, mom had to come pick her up. I felt so sorry for the little girl having to go thru all that.

 

[jodifla]

I think giving your kids Tylenol to send them to preschool is done daily across America. My co-workers would talk about it every cold and flu season.

 

[Forevryoung]

I wasnt truely sick often but I used to have a super weak stomach. My sister would tease me that if I stubbed my toe I would throw up

One day in middle school I felt sick right before lunch. I went to the nurse and she told me to come back later because it was HER lunch time. So I went to the cafeteria and threw up on the lunch table . Serves them right for sending me to lunch because she didnt feel like dealing with me. Not cool but I got to call my dad to go home. Turns out he was laying in bed with the same stomach virus!

 

[froglady]

Fever is only one indicator of illness. Neither I nor my children run fevers unless we're REALLY sick. I start hallucinating if mine goes above 101, which has only happened a couple of times. (Mastitis) I was totally incapacitated before it got that high.

So I would be more likely to pay attention to demeanor. If my children are looking and feeling awful, I don't care if they don't have a fever, they're staying home. I would also expect to be called if they're already at school. I also have the "If you're too sick to go/stay in school, you're too sick to leave your quiet room." rule.

 

[minkydog]

On another point, someone mentioned sick kids being given Tylenol & sent on to school. Ohhh, the stories I could tell about that. A few years ago, I sent one girl home with over 101 temp. at about 2 p.m.

Well the next morning she showed up for school (they are to be fever free for 24 hours before they return). Well, I took her straight to the health room & we called the mom to come get her child. You see, we were about to leave on 3 hour field trip! I could not take a sick child on a trip. Well, the girl told us mom gave her Tylenol & sent her to school so she would not miss the trip. Can you imagine having someone else's child even sitting next to her on the bus to & from the play we were going to see, or rather sitting next to her in the auditorium?

As a pediatric nurse I hear this more often than you want to know. I had a mother argue with me one night because she felt her child had strep throat and she wanted antibiotics called in ASAP(at 11pm) because he was scheduled to leave for WDW with his band at 4am ( an 8hr trip).

First of all, even if he does have strep, he's not going to be cured in 5 hours. He was running a fever and felt like cr@p.He needed to be in bed. Secondly, most good doctors will not call in antibiotics for suspicion of infection because of the risks associated with them(I know there are times when a doctor will call in abx, but most require a positive strep test. Having a bad reaction to a drug you didn't need in the first place is a terrible thing.) She was furious with me and told me she planned to load him up on Motrin and send him anyway, because she had already paid $600 for the trip and couldn't get the money back So there you have it folks, the worth of a child: $600. If I had been the other parents I would have been pretty upset.

On the other hand, my oldest son was famous for going to the nurses office in HS. Every day I'd get a call about some vague complaint. I'd go check him and sometimes bring him home where he would while away the hours. I finally told the nurse not to call me unless his temp was 101 or he had vomited in her pocket. His first job cured him of that: they told him show up for work or you're out in the snow. In Maine. In January. And home is in Atlanta.