TMS Health Office

Tecumseh Middle has the services of a Registered Nurse three (3) days per week and a trained Health Aide two (2) days per week. If you have any questions concerning your child's health contact the school office.

All medications taken by our children at school must be dispensed through the nurse's office. This includes all over-the-counter as well as prescription drugs. All medications must be kept in the office until needed. Parents must fill out a medication form provided by the nurse for any medication taken at school.

In the event of accidents at school parents will be contacted as per the emergency cards filled out at the beginning of the year. Please keep this information current.

When To Stay Home/Return To School

The incidence of colds and illness rises with children in constant contact with other children. Parents often ask when children should be kept home from school:

• A fever greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 24 hours.
• A rash that is associated with fever or itching.
• A cough bad enough that you wouldn't want your well child around a person coughing like this.
• A consistent, thick, goopy runny nose.
• Vomiting within the last 24 hours.
• Diarrhea-three or more watery stools in a 24-hour period and especially if your child acts or looks ill.
• A sore throat, especially with fever or swollen glands in the neck.
• A child that is acting ill. Unusually tired, pale, difficult to wake, confused or irritable, with lack of appetite.

Children can return to school after specific illness if they meet the following criteria:

• Strep throat: child has been on antibiotics for 24 hours, has no fever, and feels OK.
• Chicken pox: when all pox have crusted over (absent 5-7 days from onset).
• Conjunctivitis (pink eye): if the child has been treated by doctor.
• Scabies and lice: if the child has been treated and all nits are removed.
• Ear infections: if the child has been treated.
• Rash: has cleared or has physician diagnosis and treatment

Lice

HOW DO I AVOID GETTING LICE?

Teach children not to share combs, brushes, towels, bedding, hats, or clothing. *Provide separate storage areas for clothing and other personal articles, assign cubby hole areas for each child in school or child care settings, place personal articles in individual bins or sacks.

Wash dress-up clothes between use by different children. *Assign sleeping mats and bedding to only one person and store these separately. Further., Lice do not seem to like to lay their eggs in: blow dried hair, swimmer's hair, hair with mousse or hair dressing.

Medications At School

There are often questions concerning medications at school. Please remember: any medication, including both prescription and over the counter medicines such as Tylenol or cough medicine, can be given only with a completed school medication form signed by the prescribing physician as well as the parent. Forms are available in the school office as well as many medical clinics.

All medication must be brought in the original container, by an adult, and counted with school staff in the case of any controlled substances. Although as a parent I know the policy can be inconvenient at times, as a school nurse I am frequently reminded of the potential problems when it is not followed. Most antibiotics and many other medications can be prescribed to avoid school hours altogether. Please consult with your medical provider regarding this when the need arises. Please call with any questions or to request a copy of the district policy. Thanks for your cooperation.

Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal Of The Day

I know that it can be a challenge to convince some children to eat breakfast before school. As school nurses, we believer that healthy students make better learners. You can help by encouraging your children to eat breakfast. We see students in the health room at midmorning with complaints of stomach aches or hunger pains. It is difficult for these students to concentrate when they are distracted because they are hungry.

Vision Screening Clarification

It has come to my attention that some parents are under the impression that vision screening in school counts as an eye-check-up. This state mandated test does not replace physician's and/or eye professional's assessment of a child's eyes and vision. Some eye problems (such as lazy eye) need to be caught very early for proper remedy. Vision screening in the school setting only looks at distance vision, nothing else.