How Sick Is Too Sick for School?
Decoding symptoms can be tricky for parents.
Feb. 22, 2007— -- It's a familiar scene for every parent of a child in elementary school.
The lethargic, shuffling steps into the kitchen. Coughs and complaints of a sore throat and the hint of a feverish forehead.
Deciding whether or not to send your kid to school can sometimes be a tough call. After all, it's not always easy to distinguish simple theatrics from true illness.
Worse, a diagnosis and decision must often be made in the few spare moments after breakfast — and before an angry call from your boss.
Fortunately, there are a few rules of thumb that you can follow when determining whether a child is up to the task of a full day at school. And pediatricians say a mild case of sore throat or the sniffles is not necessarily a mandate to keep kids at home.
Determining whether or not a child has a fever offers a fairly reliable way of judging whether or not a child is truly too sick to go to school. Additionally, it is one of the few symptoms that can actually be quantified.
"States often have requirements regarding the exact temperature at which children need to be sent home, especially in early childhood and child care settings," says Dr. Laura Jana, pediatrician and owner of a 200-child private child care center in Omaha, Neb.
"We use above 100.2 at my school, but I have seen as low as 100 and up to 101 as the cutoff."
The time of day during which a child is experiencing a fever can also make a difference.
Dr. Carden Johnston, past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, says fevers usually run a bit higher in the evening than they do in the morning. So a high temperature in the evening may abate overnight.
However, a high temperature in the morning will likely only get worse as the day progresses, so parents should consider keeping kids home in this case.
"If it is the first day of the illness and the temperature is over 101, they should stay home," Johnston says. "If it is the third day or later, and the child has been acting well during the day, but has a 101 in the evening, I would let them go to school."
