Pre-Covid sickness protocol

[Anonymous]

New Pre-K3 parent here. Before Covid, what is the general standard (if there is such a thing) for keeping a child from school? I understand that you should keep a kid home with a fever/vomiting/diarrhea/etc., which usually lasts 1-2 days. But with most colds, kids are snotty and coughing for another 1-2 weeks after the fever/the worst is over. They are presumably still contagious. But I can't imagine snot and coughing keeping kids out for 1-2 weeks at a time. So what has been the accepted thing to do during that 1-2 week period, pre-Covid?

And moving on to our Covid times: Assuming there is some in-person school next fall AND no routine Covid testing (i.e., not just temperature checks, but actually checking for Covid), I imagine that any respiratory symptoms that would have been dismissed as a run-of-the-mill cold before would now assumed to be Covid, and a kid would be sent home and possibly ordered to not come back for 2 weeks, amirite?

[Anonymous]

Out for 24 hours after fever breaks, last instance of diarrhea or vomiting. My DCs’ school will call and ask me to pick up if they tell the nurse they feel sick or if they have a fever.

Kids who have runny noses are fine but if they are badly coughing the school asks to keep them home.

[Anonymous]

Aha. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I usually keep kids at home if they are coming down with something and with enough TLC they recover quickly. I find that the occasional 1-2 days absence in the beginning of an illness usually nips things in the bud and prevents longer illness where they are out of commision for a week or so.

[Anonymous]

My kid stays home if she's vomiting, running a temp, or just generally subpar. She's usually quite healthy, so if she's low energy, not eating, etc., we know she's getting sick and we keep her home.

And for sending them back, my rule is 24 hours fever-free without the use of antipyretics, or 24 hours without vomiting. And my kid stays home if they don't appear to be back to normal in terms of energy, appetite, etc. But not for things like runny noses. Those rarely linger. A bad cough, sure. Something that is pretty clearly post-nasal drip? Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New Pre-K3 parent here. Before Covid, what is the general standard (if there is such a thing) for keeping a child from school? I understand that you should keep a kid home with a fever/vomiting/diarrhea/etc., which usually lasts 1-2 days. But with most colds, kids are snotty and coughing for another 1-2 weeks after the fever/the worst is over. They are presumably still contagious. But I can't imagine snot and coughing keeping kids out for 1-2 weeks at a time. So what has been the accepted thing to do during that 1-2 week period, pre-Covid?

And moving on to our Covid times: Assuming there is some in-person school next fall AND no routine Covid testing (i.e., not just temperature checks, but actually checking for Covid), I imagine that any respiratory symptoms that would have been dismissed as a run-of-the-mill cold before would now assumed to be Covid, and a kid would be sent home and possibly ordered to not come back for 2 weeks, amirite?

For my kids, if they had a fever, they were home for the duration of the fever + 24 hours fever-free without meds. For vomit/diarrhea, they were home for 24 hours after the last incidence. Beyond that, I kept them home if they needed to stay home. With both of my kids, if they were feeling really cruddy, you could tell. They'd have a listless look about them, be very tired, etc.

I think in COVID times, what I'll be doing is monitoring symptoms. If your kid is coughing such that you suspect COVID and not a run of the mill cold, get them tested and keep them out of school until the test is clear.

[Anonymous]

There is what the school/DCPS says is the policy and then there is reality. My kid was in DCPS Pk3 last year. Sick kids were in the classroom year round and nobody was sent home. Kids would vomit on the regular, be generally pretty sick. There are a lot of people who will look the other way when they want/need to get to work and our teachers were not good at enforcing the policy. I'm sure you will hear of a range of experiences-maybe some teachers were better than others about this. So, I don't have high hopes that DCPS will be keeping coronavirus at bay. It may be different at the teacher level this year because many will be generally concerned about their own safety if they are in the classroom. You are going to probably experience a wide range of responses school by school, class by class and not some well-oiled DCPS infection control machine. Sorry to be so grim but honestly its gonna be a mess. Hope I'm wrong!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is what the school/DCPS says is the policy and then there is reality. My kid was in DCPS Pk3 last year. Sick kids were in the classroom year round and nobody was sent home. Kids would vomit on the regular, be generally pretty sick. There are a lot of people who will look the other way when they want/need to get to work and our teachers were not good at enforcing the policy. I'm sure you will hear of a range of experiences-maybe some teachers were better than others about this. So, I don't have high hopes that DCPS will be keeping coronavirus at bay. It may be different at the teacher level this year because many will be generally concerned about their own safety if they are in the classroom. You are going to probably experience a wide range of responses school by school, class by class and not some well-oiled DCPS infection control machine. Sorry to be so grim but honestly its gonna be a mess. Hope I'm wrong!!

It’s not the teachers. We don’t want sick kids coughing in our classrooms, throwing up on our floors, or wiping their runny noses on their friends. If they don’t have a fever over 100.4 then the nurse won’t call home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is what the school/DCPS says is the policy and then there is reality. My kid was in DCPS Pk3 last year. Sick kids were in the classroom year round and nobody was sent home. Kids would vomit on the regular, be generally pretty sick. There are a lot of people who will look the other way when they want/need to get to work and our teachers were not good at enforcing the policy. I'm sure you will hear of a range of experiences-maybe some teachers were better than others about this. So, I don't have high hopes that DCPS will be keeping coronavirus at bay. It may be different at the teacher level this year because many will be generally concerned about their own safety if they are in the classroom. You are going to probably experience a wide range of responses school by school, class by class and not some well-oiled DCPS infection control machine. Sorry to be so grim but honestly its gonna be a mess. Hope I'm wrong!!

It’s not the teachers. We don’t want sick kids coughing in our classrooms, throwing up on our floors, or wiping their runny noses on their friends. If they don’t have a fever over 100.4 then the nurse won’t call home.

+1

Even if they just vomited everywhere they hesitate! I have to 'fight' for the nurse to call home after they literally threw up all over the floor. I't pretty ridiculous.