When To Stay Home
If your child shows symptoms of respiratory illness, they must remain at home until:
- Their symptoms have significantly improved, and
- They have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications. If your child is feverish, they must stay home the following day even if seemingly recovered.
What does “significantly improved” mean?
- Symptoms are largely resolved and manageable by the child.
- An occasional mild, lingering coughing that the child can cover with their elbow is acceptable.
- Persistent coughing, sneezing, or nasal discharge is not.
Please keep your child at home if:
- They are sneezing mucus out of their nose.
- They are coughing or sneezing freely into the air.
- Their nose is running continuously.
Keeping your recovering child at home until symptoms have significantly improved as outlined above will help us prevent the spread of respiratory illness at Hogarth.
It is important to remember:
- Many preschoolers experience only mild symptoms (such as with colds, RSV, or COVID-19) and may never develop a fever.
- Mild illness can still be contagious. Even if one child seems only slightly unwell, the same illness may be more severe in another child.
Return policy for a stomach bug. Norovirus is EXTREMELY contagious. Uncontrolled infection has been known to shut down childcare centers for many days. If your child has symptoms of Norovirus, they need to stay home for at least 48 full hours AFTER their symptoms have completely resolved. The return clock rolls back to zero hours if your child has even the slightest relapse within those 48 hours. If you Google Norovirus you’ll see some sites recommending a return to work or school after 24 hours, which is why Norovirus never seems to end once it takes hold of an institution. You are most contagious while symptomatic and in the first few days after you’ve recovered. The 48-hour return time is firm at HCDS.
Your child will have opportunities to make up illness-related absences. Make-up classes will be offered from 9 to 11:30am on designated Thursdays or Fridays usually starting in January. Staying home when symptomatic with any illness or after an extended COVID exposure will keep everyone healthier. If your little one misses school for even a minor illness, those days are eligible to be made up.
NOTE: These make-up days only apply to illness-related absences, including precautionary absences for an extended COVID exposure. Please note that these make-up sessions are a courtesy. I am unaware of any other schools offering such a bonus. There is no compensation or credit issued for absences if your child is unable to attend make-up sessions or we are unable to offer enough make-up sessions to cover all of your child’s absences.