Absence Reporting and Health
Notify Sheila Castro by email or telephone at (650) 322-5935 if your child is sick and will not be at school.
Health Guidelines
Palo Alto pediatricians have worked with us to develop the following guidelines regarding an estimate of the average length of time that specific conditions may be communicable. We hope that this information will be helpful to you.
Chicken Pox
A child may return to school following an episode of chicken pox after all lesions are completely dry or gone. The course of this illness is usually 7-10 days.
Colds
Your child should not return to school until active coughing, sneezing, and nasal drip are substantially gone and there has been no fever for at least 24 hours without the use of Tylenol, etc. This is typically on the order of 3 days after a new cold has begun.
Bacterial Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye)
24 hours after antibiotic treatment has started, bacterial conjunctivitis is not generally communicable. There is, however, a second type of conjunctivitis associated with a viral infection in epidemic form that is highly contagious for several days. Please seek the advice and consultation of your medical advisor before returning a child to school who is ill with conjunctivitis.
Fever
According to the Santa Clara County Office of Education, a child should remain at home until she/he has been without fever for at least 24 hours. During the early morning hours, a fever will often register as normal, whereas later in the afternoon the temperature may rise again. This is one reason why it is extremely important to give the child at least a 24-hour period when she/he is completely free from elevated temperature before returning the child to school.
Hand Washing
It is extremely important that parents teach their children the necessity of using good handwashing techniques in order to prevent the spread of disease. Use soap and water not only after toileting and before meals, but times in between as well. Teach your child to keep their hands away from their face and nose as well. Hands should be washed after nose-blowing, coughing, and sneezing.
Head Lice
To prevent the spread of head lice, the PAUSD enforces a strict “no-nits” policy. Head lice are frequently resistant to treatment and difficult to eradicate. Thus, Addison parents will be called upon throughout the year to participate in school-wide head lice checks. Specific dates for lice checks will be published in the Advisor and/or the classroom notices.
Children with head lice (or nits) are sent home for treatment. After treatment, infected children must report to the office for an additional check before returning to the classroom. Follow-up checks on infected children are done two weeks after initial treatment. If more nits are found, children will be sent home again. Room parents will be called upon to organize parent volunteers for checking the heads of the children in their classroom, and for maintaining the tracking and follow-up checks of active cases. For information on head lice products and treatment, please call County Vector Control. A lice information binder is available in Addison’s office.
Updated information on lice procedures at Addison.
Lingering Coughs
It is important to note that lingering coughs associated with cystic fibrosis, following pneumonia or bronchitis, or associated with allergy, are not contagious. Therefore, families should be sensitive to the cause of the coughing that the child is experiencing in order to decide whether or not school attendance is wise.
Medication
No medications, prescription or non-prescription, can be dispensed to any student except by office staff and cannot be dispensed without the correct medical forms, completed by both doctor and parents. Any medications should be kept only in the school office, not in backpacks, classrooms,
desks, etc.
Strep Throat
Symptoms of strep throat can vary greatly from a severe sore throat, fever, and vomiting to a slight sore throat, mild fever, and no stomach problems. Because initial symptoms can be mistaken for a common cold, parents should keep a child home from school until the child can be properly diagnosed. A child with strep throat should stay at home for 48 hours after beginning antibiotics AND until the fever has subsided for at least 24 hours. This means that if your child starts antibiotic treatment on a Tuesday morning at 11:00 a.m., he/she should not return to school until Friday or Thursday after lunch at the earliest.
Vomiting and Diarrhea
If a child vomits or has diarrhea at school, the student needs to go home immediately. Children who have been suffering from vomiting or diarrhea should be given a 24-hour “symptom-free” period of time to prevent recurrence, transmission to other children and to regain strength before returning to school. This is in the child’s and the school community’s best interest.