Just a Little Note to the School
Tuesday, April 03, 2007

You can't have it both ways.

Throughout the cold and flu season, the elementary school sends home notes every two weeks or so. They go something like this:
Don't send your kid to school if they are sick. If they have a runny nose, cough, fever, are listless, are vomiting, or have diarrhea, keep them home.
About every month or so, we also get a handy little reminder letting us know that children can only miss up to 10 days of school per year. If a child racks up more than 10 days, they will be retained and social services may be notified. All absences must be excused by a written note. Absences in excess of 10 days must have physician notes.

Well, there are 184 scheduled school days. The odds of a kid having diarrhea or a snotty nose on at least 10 of those days? If they are my children, 100%.

This is compounded when the school nurse calls me because Mr. R has a fever - of 99.2 degrees. Directly after recess. When he was running around the playground in long pants and a sweater.
Then she sends him home for having pink eye and declares he can't come back until he's on antibiotics. Except he has viral pinkeye from a cold (and antibiotics won't kill a virus). Upon his return to school, I get a note declaring his absence unauthorized unless I write a note excusing him... when the school sent him home and wouldn't let him come back.

Sigh. Can you tell I'm frustrated?

Labels: , ,

 
posted by Milehimama @ Mama Says at 4/03/2007 01:46:00 PM | Permalink | |