Dear Parents,

The start of the school year is a great time to remind our school community of the measures we take to keep students healthy and prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

• We reinforce frequent handwashing with our students and coughing/sneezing into a tissue or their sleeve (not their hands).
• In addition, we refer to the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment (JCDHE) recommendations when determining the need to send a student home from school (see attached document). The JCDHE recommendation chart provides specific guidance on when a student can be readmitted to school.
  • For example, students are to be fever-free for 24 hours WITHOUT the use of fever-reducing medication before returning to school.
• Occasionally, we receive questions about head lice management in our schools, and we have included a document with up-to-date information.
  • As needed, we will inform parents when we see an increase in illnesses in our school population with the potential for rapid spread among students and staff (such as influenza) or in the rare instance we have a mandatory reportable disease occurring in our population, like mumps. General head lice notifications are not recommended as they have been found to cause harm and lead to unnecessary treatment. Instead, the school nurse will assess the need for notification on an individual basis to those considered close contacts.

Thank you for reinforcing healthy habits with our students.  If you have any questions, feel free to email school nurse Paula Engelland.

What’s going around??? 

Strep is something that goes around all year long and here are some s/s to be aware of.

Strep Throat

Here is information from the Johnson County Health Department about

JCHD Exclusion Recommendations (English)

JCHD Exclusion Recommendations (Spanish)

and when to readmit your student back to school after he/she has been ill.

Head Lice Refresher for Elementary Parents (PDF)

Head Lice Management Guide