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School Nurse
Nurses' Office & Health Information
John H. Castle Elementary has the services of both a Registered Nurse and a trained Health Aide 5 days per week. Olivia Moore is an RN in her 4th year at JHC. She has a total of 13 years of nursing experience. Amee Hadley is a health aide and this is also her 4th year at JHC.
Medications at School:
There are often questions concerning medications at school. All medications must be brought in the original container either by the student (must include a note from parent/guardian with the medication) or the parent/guardian, but cannot be returned with the student. All medications must be picked up by the parent/guardian. No medications will be sent home with the student. All medications taken by students at school must be dispensed through the nurses’ office. It is required that all parental authorization forms are renewed annually. Please keep in mind that all requirements are intended to protect your child from any potential harm caused by misuse of medication. We do not keep OTC medications, such as Tylenol or Ibuprofen, stocked in the nurses’ office.
Immunizations:
The Indiana State Department of Health annually reviews and updates the immunizations required for school entry. Be sure to send in verification of all immunizations to the nurses’ office when school starts. Indiana Law provides that, “...no student shall be permitted to attend school for more than twenty days beyond that date of their enrollment without a current immunization record on file with the school.”
Emergency and/or Action Plans:
If your child has ASTHMA, has FOOD ALLERGIES, is DIABETIC, has SEIZURES, or OTHER SERIOUS MEDICAL CONDITIONS, please make sure the nurses’ office is aware of the situation. All of these medical conditions must have an action care plan and medical diagnosis with protocol signed by their prescribing physician. These must be signed and updated every school year by the student’s physician. In the event of an accident at school, parents will be contacted as per the emergency contact filled out at registration or as updated in the Online Annual Verification process. Please keep this information current.
Illness:
Students must stay home from school if they have a fever of 100.4 degrees Fehrenheit or greater, vomiting, or diarrhea. They can return to school once they have been fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications, and once they have been free of vomiting or diarrhea for 24 hours.
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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 of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or greater in the last 24 hours.
- A rash that is associated with fever and/or is bothersome, distracting, spreading, or draining.
- A cough with symptoms severe enough that the student is unable to learn, has a fever, is unable to cover the cough, blow nose, or wash hands.
- A consistent, thick, goopy runny nose.
- Vomiting within the last 24 hours.
- Diarrhea: during the past 24 hours- one watery stool has occurred.
- 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.
- Eyes are pink, draining, crusty, itching, painful, sensitive to light, or student has vision changes.
- Asthma symptoms are not well controlled. The student is unable to recognize when he/she needs assistance, and no asthma action plan is on file at school.
- Lice: if the student has live bugs or bothersome itching.
Children may return to school if they meet the following criteria:
- During the past 24 hours, the child’s temperature has been below 100.4 degrees Fehrenheit and no fever-reducing medications have been given.
- Diarrhea: during the past 24 hours, no watery stool has occurred.
- During the past 24 hours, no vomiting has occurred.
- Eyes may be itchy, but are not red, crusty, or draining.
- Slight cough or runny nose, but no fever, and the child is able to cover the cough, blow nose, and wash hands.
- Rash is not draining or spreading, no fever, and symptoms of itching are not severe enough to impede learning.
- Asthma symptoms are well controlled, the student knows when to contact a school adult for assistance and/or the student has an asthma action plan on file at the school and is following the plan.
- Lice: if the child has only nits and itching is tolerable while being treated.
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 with antibiotics.
- 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
More from the Nurses' Office
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Teach children not to share combs, brushes, towels, bedding, hats, or clothing.
*Provide separate storage areas for clothing and other personal articles, assign cubby areas for each child in school or child care settings, and 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 like to lay their eggs in: clean, blow dried hair, swimmer's hair, hair with mousse or hair dressing.
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It has come to our attention that some parents are under the impression that the vision screening in school replaces as an eye-check-up. The state mandated test does not replace a 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 looks only at distance vision.