Nurse

Castle Elementary has the services of a Registered Nurse, 2 days per week and a trained Health Aide, 3 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.

Chickenpox Outbreaks:

It is very important that the nurse's office is informed of any chickenpox outbreaks. We have two students that will become very ill if the come down with it. They must take a special medicine if exposed.

News from the Nurse:

By law, we cannot send any medicines home with your child. You must come to school to pick them up.

This means, we can't send antibiotics home if you send in the whole bottle. When you get antibiotic filled you might get a bottle for school.

Any time you send or bring in any medicine for your child, you will have to come and get it if there is any left at the end of the year.

Also, the law states they cannot have any medicine with them at school. They must bring all medicine into the nurse's office and take it in the nurse's office unless they have a doctor's slip and a release signed by the parent to use emergency med's such as inhalers or adrenaline. You can get the release paper in the nurse's office.

If you have any questions, please call the school and talk to the nurse or health aid.

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 POLICY
Whenever three or more students in a grade level have lice or nits, the nurse plans to screen all of the students in that grade within ten school days. Federal Way Schools have a no nit/lice policy. Students may not attend school with lice or nits in their hair. Having lice is not a disease, but a personal nuisance problem that can be treated by anyone at home.

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.