When to Keep Your Child Home from School
The practice of school nursing concerning the prevention and control of communicable disease is regulated by the State of Texas under Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 97.
The major criterion for exclusion from school is the probability of spread of infection from person to person. A child may have a non-excludable illness that makes it difficult for the child to learn and/or requires the child be cared for at home or in a hospital. The school nurse is qualified to assess a student's symptoms and to determine when parent or guardian needs to be notified regarding the student's symptoms based inability to adequately engage in learning.
The first step in the control of communicable diseases is assessment of presenting signs and symptoms. A student exhibiting any of the following symptoms will be excluded from school:
The 24 hour rule refers to and includes full school days, i.e. students excluded at 8:40 a.m. one day may not return to class the following day at 8:40 a.m.
Established by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and located in the Texas Administrative Code, it is mirrored in Cisd Regulation FFAD and used to identify notifiable conditions and to determine readmission requirements for communicable diseases. The campus administrator shall exclude from attendance any child having or suspected of having a communicable disease designated by the Commissioner of Health as cause for exclusion until one of the readmission criteria is met.
Returning to School
Students excluded from school for reason of communicable disease may be readmitted by one of the following methods:
1. The child must be fever-free and free of vomiting or diarrhea for 24 consecutive hours without the use of medications.
2. Documentation from the child's physician stating they are released to return to school.
3. Documentation for readmission issued by the local health authority.