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Too Sick for School

When To Keep Your Child Home From School

Lakewood School District works with the Snohomish Health District to help protect children from spreading communicable diseases. Keeping children home when they are too sick for school protects other students and staff from potential illness.

Symptoms That a Child is Too Sick for School

If your child has any of the following symptoms, please keep him/her home, or make appropriate childcare arrangements. It will be necessary to pick your student up from school as soon as possible if he/she shows any of the following symptoms at school:

  • Fever: temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. A child must not have a fever for 24 hours before returning to school.
  • Vomiting: a child should not return to school for 24 hours following the last episode of vomiting
  • Lice, scabies: children may not return to school until they have been treated and are free of lice and nits (eggs). Children with scabies can be admitted after treatment.
  • Diarrhea: more than one watery stool in a 24 hour period, especially if the child acts or looks ill
  • A chronic cough and/or a runny nose: continual coughing and greenish nasal discharge. Conditions may be contagious and may require treatment from your healthcare provider.
  • A sore throat: especially with fever or swollen glands in the neck
  • Rash: body rash, especially with fever or itching
  • ar infection: with fever. Without fever can attend school, but the child may need medical treatment and follow-up. Untreated ear infections can cause permanent hearing loss.
  • Eye infection: pink eye (conjunctivitis) or thick mucus or pus draining from the eye
  • Unusual appearance, behavior: abnormally tired, pale, lack of appetite, difficult to wake, confused or irritable. This is sufficient reason to exclude a child from school.