6122 - Communicable Disease Prevention and Control ## 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.

  1. 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.

  2. Streptococcal and Staphylococcal Infections: Student is excluded from school until treated with a prescription antibiotic for 24 hours.

  3. 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.

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: 2005-07-11 2009-09-14