When Should You Keep Your Child Home From School

It's that time of year again. The kids are back in school and germs spread quickly. With the rise in allergens and the drop in temperatures and the rainy season, it can be difficult to tell when your kid should go to school or if they are exaggerating. 

My kids have only been in school for one full week and Tuesday morning, the first morning back since the three day weekend, my daughter saw that her little brother might get to stay home, so she's convinced herself that she is sick, too. She was most convincing- not!

Unfortunately, for her, I determined that what she has was an allergy reaction to outside and gave her a little bit of her medicine. She wasn't very happy with me, but I explained to her that we don't stay home from school for the sniffles, cough, sneezing, or yawning. I wish that we could keep our kids home when that happens, but schools are under so much pressure to keep attendance up that there are only a few things that they want you to stay home for.




So where do you find these magical guides to staying home? Does your school have a handbook? Ours does and it has guidelines for us to follow.

Reasons for Excused Absences 

• Illness 

• Hospitalizations 

• Counselor, dean or other office appointments 

• School related activities in which the student is a participant, 

• History of chronic health problems for which proper documentation has been filed 

• Death in the family or family emergencies....

And so on and so forth, but in the little lines below the reasons it states- 

Schools may require parents/guardians to present medical documentation of physical or emotional conditions causing a student's absence of three or more days, a continuing pattern of absences, or a reasonable suspicion about the validity of a medical or physical condition exists. 

What is a parent supposed to do about that? A parent should be able to determine whether or not their child should be in school and as a parent, I shouldn't have to take my child to the doctor for a cold in order to get something written down to show my child's school that they are sick. I mean, who's in charge, here? Them or US? I know that this tends to be a BIG reason why some parents home school their children.

But, I'm off topic and I don't really want to spur an emotional debate over this... or maybe I do... Controversy does bring traffic....

Any who, so this is what I recommend. Talk to your school. Get your face recognized and advocate for your kids if you get into a conundrum with the school, but until that happens, this is what other sites recommend you do for your kids when they don't feel well. 

 Web MD Exuses to Stay Home

1. Does your child have a fever? Fevers of 101 F or more are generally a sign of illness, so children should stay home from school. 

2. Is your child well enough to participate in class? If she seems too run down to get much out of her lessons, keep her home. 

 3. Does she have an illness like the flu or pinkeye? If you think she might, don't let her go back to school until you know he's not contagious anymore.

 Other sites like this one for Kids Health says to keep your kids home for:

• Diarrhea
• Strep Throat
• Chicken Pox or other communal diseases and illnesses
• Fever
• Lice, Scabies, and Ringworm
• and of course vomiting 

      I'd also like to add lost limbs, excessive bleeding, and medical emergencies like allergic reactions. In those cases, go to the emergency room and don't worry about the school.

Conclusion

In a perfect world, we'd like to be able to keep our kids home from school the moment they exhibit any sort of illness... ok, maybe you're like me and think, "Rub some dirt in it" because well, not everyone can afford to take time off of work  or what they're doing (although, I do stay home, but to be fair, I do a lot of work on my computer) to take care of our kids who can still function so you send them to school. We all would especially like it if that one parent kept their kids cold germs at home so we didn't get them in our home, but realistically, we aren't all going to be completely germ free unless we live in a bubble, but even then, it's impossible to be completely germ free.
   
So, in conclusion, if you follow the guidelines above, you'll know when to keep you kids home and when to send them to school. These guidelines also can be used for going to work. I hope this list has helped you and if you found it helpful, share with all your parent friends!