Wellness Policy

It requires every family’s cooperation to keep EES a healthy environment as much as possible. Realize that children interact closely with one another as they share personal space, materials, and equipment. Illness in the classrooms spreads quickly and easily.

A daily health check is given every morning to each child as they are signed in. If teachers feel that a child is showing signs of illness at sign-in time, the child may not be permitted to enter on that date to protect the health of the sick child and the other children in the center. A child’s exclusion is based on appearance, behavior, or complaint, not on diagnosis.

Let us know if your child has shown signs of illness at home, such as fever, rash, runny nose, or unusual sleepiness. If a child is not well enough to participate in normal activities (including regular outside play), he/she will not be able to attend until he/she is well enough to participate fully.

The following guidelines have been adapted from the American Academy of Pediatrics (Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Standards: Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs) for excluding children with illness:

• Respiratory Illnesses and Colds: Children with runny noses will not necessarily be excluded from the Center. However, if mucous cannot be controlled by normal wiping, the child can be excluded at the Site Supervisor/Director’s discretion. Children must be excluded if the runny nose is associated with a fever, sore throat, or a persistent cough and if the symptoms prevent them from participating in normal day activities.
• Diarrhea: A child with one loose or watery stool will be observed. If it is repeated, the child will be excluded. Children can not return to the Center the following day unless they have had at least one normal bowel movement.
• Fever: The teacher will take a child’s temperature if the child’s condition warrants it. Children with an elevated temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher will be excluded. Children must be fever-free without fever-reducing medication for 48 hours before returning to the center.
• Conjunctivitis Children with conjunctivitis (pink eye) must be taken to a doctor. After one full day (24 hours) of receiving antibiotics, they can return to the Center.

Symptoms that will require exclusion include earache, ear drainage, unusual listlessness, red or watery eyes, unexplained rashes or sores, difficulty breathing, vomiting, headache, and croupy coughs.

Please keep your child home if they develop the following symptoms:

• Fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher
• Nausea or vomiting
• Stomach cramps, diarrhea
• Earache, sore throat, red or watery eyes
• Swollen glands
• Unusual pallor, flushed face
• Unusual listlessness or quietness
• Excessive coughing
• Unexplained rashes or sores
• Need for frequent use of the toilet
• Evidence of head lice
• Salmonella
• Infected skin patches
• Cuts or openings that are pus-filled and/or oozing
• Unusual behavior (crying, general discomfort, or loss of appetite)

Contact the Center when a child develops an illness, especially a contagious illness. For all contagious illnesses, the child is not able to attend the center until they are no longer considered contagious. A child must not return until he/she is symptom-free and able to participate fully in center activities. Participation includes being able to play outdoors. Children cannot be required to stay indoors.

If a child becomes ill while in care, the parents will be called to pick up their child. When requested, children must be picked up within 30 minutes to reduce the spread of illness. If you plan to be outside of the vicinity in which you would not be able to pick up your child due to injury or illness, please ensure that your emergency contacts are local. Each family must have at least 2 accessible local emergency contacts on file at all times when possible. Exceptions will be made on a case by case basis.