Notes from the Health Office
Welcome Back!! I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing summer. It is wonderful to be back and I look forward to meeting many new students we have here at Nixon. Here are some information I provide to parents/guardians with at the beginning of each school year. Please call me at the health office if there are any questions I can answer about the following or with any concerns.
Medications
Please do not send any medications in your child's lunchbox or backpack. All medication (in its original container), prescription and nonprescription, needs to be dropped off by a parent/guardian to the health office. When a prescription is being filled at the pharmacy, please have the pharmacist divide the medication between two containers, one for home and another for school.
Physicals
Fourth grade physicals are due in the health office. Thank you if you have already sent a copy of your child’s physical in. If you have not yet provided the health office with a current physical, please do so as soon as possible.
Illness Protocol
Please help us control the incidence of sickness at Nixon by observing the following policies:
Any child who has a fever, vomiting, diarrhea or green mucous discharge from the nose should not attend school. If your child develops these symptoms while attending school, you will be called to pick him/her up immediately.
It is appropriate for your child to return to school following illness:
----after 24 hours of antibiotic therapy for strep throat or other contagious bacterial or viral conditions
----after 24 hours without fever (many children with a night time fever will not manifest fever in the morning but will later in the day)
----without vomiting, diarrhea or a rash
----upon doctor recommendation, (if needed), documenting that a child is no longer infectious from a severe bacterial or viral illness
In addition, please keep your child home if you are awaiting the results of a culture.
It is imperative that the Health Office be notified immediately at the slightest suspicion that a child has or has been exposed to chickenpox. This can be life threatening for some of our Nixon students.
Food Allergy Policy
The Sudbury School System has an extensive Food Allergy Policy which helps provide a safe learning environment for all students. It is posted on the Sudbury School Website at: http://www.sudbury.k12.ma.us/parent-handbook.html. Under Policies and Information, click on Food Allergy Policy. Please take a few minutes to read through the policy. If your child is in an “peanut/nut restricted” room those items cannot be eaten as snacks in the classroom, however, in the cafeteria there is a “peanut/nut restricted” table available for those students with allergies. I wish to thank every one of you for your continued support regarding this very important issue.
Just a reminder, birthdays at Nixon are celebrated and the birthday child is honored but without food. Also, please do not send candy into school with your child, for both nutritional and allergy concerns.
Handwashing
Please review with your child the importance of good, thorough hand washing frequently throughout the day, but especially before eating meals and snacks and after using the bathroom. Good hand washing consists of rubbing the hands together with soap under running water for at least 15 seconds and turning off the faucet with a paper towel. This will greatly reduce the incidence of colds and viruses in your household and at school. Please consider supplying your child with a small sample size of a Purell-type handsanitizer or germ-killing handwipes to have available for their use throughout the day. There is a Purell wall dispenser available to the children as they proceed through the lunch line.
Thank you,
Anne Chabot, R.N.
Nixon Health Office
(978) 443-1080, ext. 1103