School Health
When to stay home:
Updates from Michigan Department of Health and Human Services on when to keep students home from school 9/2025
Many illnesses do not require exclusion. However, children may be excluded if the illness prevents the child from participating comfortably in school activities or if there is risk of spread of harmful disease to others. These criteria also apply to when staff should be excluded.
Criteria include:
Severely ill – lethargic, difficulty breathing, or rapidly spreading rash
Fever 101F or greater AND behavior change or other signs of illness
Staff can use their best judgement if the child does not have a fever of 101F or greater, but still appears significantly ill with symptoms such as glassy eyes and lethargy
The child should not return until there is no fever for 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing medications
Diarrhea – 2 or more loose watery stools
The child should have no loose stools for 24 hours prior to returning to school unless health care provider determines it’s not infectious.
Vomiting – vomited 2 or more times
The child should have no vomiting episodes for 24 hours prior to returning unless health care provider has determined the vomiting is not due to an infectious condition.
Abdominal pain – abdominal pain that continues for more than 2 hours or intermittent pain associated with fever or other symptoms
Rash – rash AND a fever or change in behavior
Respiratory symptoms - Worsening or not improving, and not explained by another cause (e.g., allergies)
Skin Sore – weeping sores on an exposed area that cannot be covered with a waterproof dressing
Communicable Diseases – chart for exclusion/return included in guideline
When NOT to exclude a student from school – examples on Pg 15 of guideline linked below
Communicating Illness:
When your student is ill please report symptoms or specific illness to the school office
The school offices track illnesses and are required to report a weekly summary to the Genesee County Health Department.
When a trend is identified information will be sent to the building to share with families for awareness and prevention
District Nurse
Rebecca Fredrick, RN, BSN
Email: rfredrick@swcrk.org
Hours: Monday - Friday, 7:30a-3:30p
Nurse travels to all buildings in the district and is housed at the High School. Please email with any health questions or concerns.
A day in the life...
Assist with student medical needs
Provide staff training on medical conditions, medications, medical emergency response
Case management
Policy and procedure review
Monitors illness trends throughout
the district, community, and country
Provides education on health promotion and safety
Evaluates
injuries and illnesses on site when available
Provides consultation on communicable disease processes partnering with the Genesee County Health Department
Trending Topics
Medication at School
Our goal is your child’s safety and your help is needed to achieve this goal! Students are not to carry medication without orders per district policy.
All medication authorizations must be renewed at the beginning of each school year. The order is good for one school year unless shorter time frame ordered by physician.
Authorization forms must be completed for both prescription and non-prescription medications.
Each medication needs its own authorization
Refill of the medication is the responsibility of the parent/guardian
Action plans for health conditions such as Diabetes, Seizures, and Allergies must be completed every school year
Unused medication will be discarded unless picked up by the parent/guardian on or before the last day of school
Additional information and forms can be found on the medical forms tab
MERT
(Medical Emergency Response Team)
Each school building in our district has a MERT team, a group of trained staff members who are assigned roles and respond to medical emergencies during the school day.
MERT training is done annually and each team goes through a suprise drill in which the teams are tested on their response time and action plans.
We are grateful for all our MERT members who jump into action when duty calls!
Lice
If your child has head lice, please notify the school office and your child's close contacts. Your child's information will be kept confidential at school.
Student can return to school after treatment, no live bugs, and no nits within 1/4" of the scalp.
Please treat your child and environment and continue manual removal of nits for 10 days.
Remember: Head Lice are not a health hazard or a sign of poor hygiene!