Illness policies
The purpose of this policy is to clearly communicate childcare is for healthy friends, and what symptoms exclude a child from coming for care, or require early pick up. The policy may be adjusted or updated at any time, please ask the provider for most recent document.
Thank you for keeping your child (and siblings) home for monitoring when you aren’t sure if they are well, or know they are sick. I meet or exceed state, local, and licensing rules for infectious disease management for enrolled children, myself, and my family.
I follow and encourage universal precautions of hand washing, and meet or exceed State requirements to help promote and maintain a healthy home environment. Eating right, proper rest, and exercise also help maintain good health.
There may be times when a child (and enrolled siblings) may not attend, or I must send an ill child (and enrolled siblings for monitoring) home. For that reason, parent(s) are encouraged to have a plan made for alternate care. If I suspect a child may be unwell while in care, I will text parents for early notice and monitor symptoms. If necessary, I will call the child’s parent(s) and require pick up in no more than 30 minutes. I will also do everything possible to comfort and isolate the child until the parent(s) or other emergency contact person arrives.
In support of public health and out of an abundance of caution, all enrolled children from the same home may return for care when everyone in the family is well again. Children must be fever and/or symptom-free without medication for 36 hours before returning to childcare.
Parents are encouraged to schedule immunizations for the end of the week to avoid missing work/needing alternate care plans. Following immunizations, or urgent care visits/hospitilizations children are to be monitored for 48 hours before returning for childcare.
Although I strive to offer reliable service, if I am unable to care for children due to my illness or my own family’s urgent needs, parents will be contacted via text message by or before 6:30 am so you may make alternate care plans for the day(s) as necessary.
Symptom Chart
For the protection of all children in care, a child will not be admitted to care and/or parent(s) will be notified and required to remove the child (and all enrolled siblings) from care immediately if a child exhibits any of the following symptoms:
*Temperature of 100.4° or higher
*Vomiting/diarrhea
*Severe coughing/difficult or rapid breathing
*Conjunctivitis or discharge from eyes (pink eye)
*Unusual spots, rashes, oozing wounds or blisters
*Yellowish color or tint to eyes/skin (jaundice)
*Difficulty swallowing
*Head lice/nits
*Upper respiratory symptoms (cough, sneezing, mucus) with or without fever
*Any symptom/situation which in the opinion of the care provider may indicate the possible presence of a communicable health concern, or may need 1:1 monitoring by family.
*Lethargy, not eating and/or playing as usual
*Extreme emotional anxiety/distress that requires more individual attention than is possible in a community group care program.
*48 hours following immunizations, urgent care/ER/hospital visits for close monitoring.
A note from a medical doctor does not supersede these policies.
All parent(s) will be notified of possible exposure to contagious diseases/concerns. A child with a communicable disease/concern will not be readmitted into care until the period of contamination has passed based on health department recommendations and/or until the child has fully recovered. As a courtesy to all families, parent(s) are asked to notify the care provider if their child is diagnosed with an illness/concern after their care week has ended, so it may be communicated to others in care.
Due to the inability to properly mask, covid positive diagnosis requires a minimum of 10 days to isolate and requires a covid negative test result before returning to care.
If provider/family test covid positive, program is closed for 10 days and covid negative test results will be announced for enrolled families before reopening.
This is the website I refer to for reliable community health information: http://www.webmd.com/