Dear Peregrine Community,
We understand that there are some questions about when to keep your child home, and when your child will be sent home from school. For the most part, we are applying the same standards articulated in the Parent Handbook, and Head Teachers will be more strict about adhering to our illness policy than they may have in the past. We want to ensure that we prevent the spread of ANY illnesses. We also want to prevent the introduction of COVID-19 to our school community and stave off a school closure for as long as possible.
Your child will be sent home if they arrive at school, or present during school, with the following:
Fever: Per our school policy, fever is defined as a body temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or over. Students may not attend school until they have been free of fever for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication.
Vomiting: Students may not attend school until 24 hours after the last episode of vomiting.
Diarrhea: Students with recurrent diarrhea must stay home unless the diarrhea has a known non-infectious cause. Students may not attend school until 24 hours after the last episode of diarrhea.
Cold symptoms: runny nose, cough. Students should not attend school within the first 48 hours of a cold. Colds are most infectious at this point, and what looks like a minor runny nose in the morning may be flu by afternoon.
Strep throat/scarlet fever: Students may return to school 24 hours after the start of antibiotic treatment.
Conjunctivitis (pink eye): Students must be evaluated by a doctor to determine the conjunctivitis’ cause. Return to school must be cleared by a doctor.
Bacterial conjunctivitis: Students may attend school 24 hours after the start of antibiotic treatment.
Viral conjunctivitis: Students must stay home until all symptoms are gone (viral conjunctivitis is highly contagious).
Rash: Students must remain at home until cleared by a doctor.Ear/sinus/other noncontagious secondary infection. Students may attend school after they have been evaluated by a doctor and started on appropriate therapy.
Head lice: Students may attend school after receiving treatment with anti-lice shampoo (available at most drug stores) or a prescription lice treatment and thorough combing with a nit comb. See the Head Lice section for more details on our policy.
IMPORTANT: In addition, your child should not attend school, and will be sent home, if they have a cough. We are emphasizing cough because it is a primary symptom of COVID-19 infection, and coughs can easily spread the virus. If your child has a chronic cough, itchy/watery eyes, and/or a runny nose from a non-infectious cause, please provide communication from your doctor that it’s okay for your child to attend school.
Please, be aware that we are also applying the same illness standards to our staff during this time. Please bear with us if more teachers are out sick than usual and we cannot find sufficient coverage. Ratios may increase if classrooms are short-staffed and not as enriched as they would otherwise be. Rest assured, we will always remain within licensing ratio.
We are working to find a balance with the well-being of our staff, students and families, parent concerns about school closing, and making sure that we are doing all that we can to keep illnesses out of our school, and in particular COVID-19.
Our goal is to do our best to keep our entire community safe by taking precautions so that we are not all adversely affected. In times like this, we are particularly grateful for the strength and togetherness of this community.
Sincerely,
Peregrine School Directors
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