Avery County Schools Policy Policy Code: 6122
COMMUNICABLE DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL
Students are excluded from school in cases of communicable diseases. When a student is suspected of having one of the following communicable diseases, it is the responsibility of the parent to take the child to the local health department or family physician for verification and treatment before that student can return to school.
1. Chickenpox: Student is excluded for at least five (5) days after the rash
appears or until all blisters have formed scabs.
2. Measles (Rubeola/Rubella): Student is excluded until physician’s approval is
given and student is no longer contagious.
3. Pediculosis (Head Lice): Student is excluded until one (1) pediculocide
shampoo treatment is completed. (Schools may adopt “No Nit” policy.)
4. Scabies: Student is excluded until one (1) treatment with prescription
medication for 12 to 24 hours is completed.
5. Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye): Student is excluded if:
• Eye(s) is(are) severely red and somewhat swollen.
• There is a yellow (purulent) discharge.
• Child excessively rubs the itching eye(s).
• Condition has lasted more than three (3) days.
• There is an epidemic in the school or it appears that cases are being
transmitted from one student to another.
Student is allowed to return to school on approval of physician.
6. Impetigo: Student is excluded from school if he has more than three or four
sores and until seen by physician and treated with a prescription antibiotic for
24 hours.
7. Streptococcal and Staphylococcal Infections: Student is excluded from
school until treated with a prescription antibiotic for 24 hours.
8. Influenza: The student should remain at home until at least 24 hours after
they are free of fever (100 degrees), or signs of a fever without use of fever-
reducing medications.
Avery County Schools Policy Code: 6122 Page 1 of 2 The school will maintain a list of students who have not been vaccinated (e.g. religious and/or medical exemptions) or who have immunosuppresed illnesses, so that appropriate action can be taken to protect these individuals when communicable disease outbreaks occur.
• Students with signs and symptoms of communicable diseases are excluded
from school for the period of communicability and readmitted in
accordance with recommendations of the personal physician, DEHNR
Regulations for Control of Communicable Disease, and local school
district policy.
• The school nurse is responsible for providing or arranging in-service
education for teachers and school staff regarding the signs and symptoms
of common communicable illness, mode of transmission, and period of
communicability. Information should include local school district policies
governing exclusion and readmission and a mechanism for health service
referrals. The chart: “Control of Communicable Disease in Schools,”
Section E-1.60, may be helpful as a teaching aid and a useful ready
reference for teachers.
• Local school district policies should be developed in accordance with the
“Recommendation Concerning School Attendance of Children with AIDS
and HIV Infection.” (Section E-1.51)
• The school nurse should serve as the in-school case coordinator for the
student who has a chronic infectious disease. He/she is responsible for
monitoring and assessing students with infectious diseases and
maintaining liaison with home, community health agencies, and the
student’s personal physician.
• The student with a suppressed immune system may need to be temporarily
removed from school for his own protection during an outbreak of
contagious disease among classmates. The decision to remove the student
is made by the student’s physician and parent in consultation with the
nurse.
Adopted: 7/11/05; 9/14/09
Avery County Schools Policy Code: 6122 Page 2 of 2