Note from the RSU 50 School Nurse:
There have recently been questions from families as to whether or not they can send other children in the family to school if they have one child in the family who is feverish or sick. The answer is "yes," as long as any of the other children are not feverish or sick, as well. And to clarify further, it is o.k., for example, to send a child to school if he/she has a low-grade fever or one lower-risk symptom such as a headache, scratchy throat, stuffy nose, nausea, etc. It is when a child has a fever of 100.4 or higher or has higher-risk symptoms such as uncontrolled cough, shortness of breath, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, chills or involved respiratory illness that you should contact your child's PCP and follow the school's COVID guidelines for COVID testing and/or quarantine.
If your child tests positive for COVID, he/she would have to follow the school's COVID plan and remain at home for 10 days and be fever-free for 24 hours, at the end of that 10 days, before returning to school. Any close contacts of that child (those exposed to the child with COVID) would need to quarantine for 14 days, as it can take up to 14 days for COVID symptoms to develop.
Attached you will find a user-friendly document, for families, from the American Association of Pediatrics(AAP) which will hopefully answer a lot of your questions about COVID symptoms and testing, isolation and quarantine, "close contact" issues, "can my child come to school if" issues, etc. We do understand that navigating all of these issues can be time-consuming and confusing, but hopefully this additional guidance will provide you with the help that you need to work through these questions and issues. Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions.
Kathy Chamberland, R.N., B.S.N. -- PreK-12 School Nurse
Link Returning to School During Covid-19 Pandemic Guidelines https://5il.co/l440
Link AAP Guidelines for returning to school https://5il.co/l442