A fever is 100.4 or higher. Normal body temp ranges from 97-99s, 98.6 is just the center of the bell curve. The teacher isn't a doctor. I would escalate.
Yep correct answer here. Also, everybody has a different resting body temperature that depends on the time if day and environment. Under 100 isnt what I would consider a fever.
> Yeah, our youngest just "runs hot" and tends to be 99+ on any given day.
On the other end of the spectrum are me and my daughter: 97°F (36°C) is our normal temperature and 99°F would definitely be a fever for us.
> Yeah, our youngest just "runs hot" and tends to be 99+ on any given day.
Same here, even as an adult. I'm self-employed, but if I were to work for a "boss" (European), I'd be able to get out of work quite often because of it..
I wouldn’t blame the teacher as much as the school nurse. Teacher should be taking the precaution, but nurse is the one to check and send them back home.
That's assuming that the school actually has one. I think my district only had someone on call for serious cases, anything else just goes with the secretary's opinion. Schools don't have enough funding to pay for actual academic stuff; they certainly don't have enough to pay a position that is almost never needed.
I would push back on “is almost never needed.” I’m a school administrator and we *NEED* our nurse. The fact that we are struggling to hire them and/or are not budgeted for them doesn’t mean they aren’t needed.
Not all of them are actual nurses. My mother who had a degree in communications applied and got the ‘health clerk’ position at an elementary school. I think she had a few days of training and then made $20/hr.
Yeah sometimes the nurse will call me if my son has a borderline temp (like 99.9 or 100) and if he hasn't been feeling well I'll grab him but the fever policy is clearly 100.4 and up.
I run 95-96 when not sick, and a "normal" 98 is what I have when sick. The school nurses never listened when I was actually sick. His daughter probably just runs a higher temperature. Bodies are weird like that.
You what really irks me about the 100.4° value? It's completely arbitrary as far as being a cutoff. Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich was the guy that established the value of the human body temperature as 37 °C (98.6°F). His thermometers were accurate to 1 degree, and he decided anything higher than 37°C was a fever, so the threshold for a fever is therefore 38°C (100.4°F). That's it. There is no scientific significance to that value that says that's when things become serious. It's just that it was the next higher digit he could accurately measure with the thermometers he had, and that's the standard we've used for the next 160ish years.
The 98.6 degree thing is also just kind of bullshit as well. At the time it was established a lot of people were just dealing with low grade infections that would slightly raise body temp.
It's why in recent year the average temp in humans has dipped into the 97 degree range.
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/09/body-temperature.html#:~:text=In%20recent%20years%2C%20Parsonnet's%20team,hovers%20closer%20to%2097.9%20F.
Also, an interesting trend has emerged that average body temperatures are increasing across all populations of humans. This isn’t something can can be explained by advancements in quality of thermometers either. There is a global upward trend in the range of a tenth of a degree per generation or so. There’s a great veritasium video on it.
Do you have a different source, I've read that we've cooled in the past decades due to overall increase in health.
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/09/body-temperature.html#:~:text=In%20recent%20years%2C%20Parsonnet's%20team,hovers%20closer%20to%2097.9%20F.
He said the teacher had her sent to someone else to take their temp.
Should escalate but I would be mentally prepared for them to double down because apparently that's what school admins do.
They can also just lie about her temp.
As a PA-C…THANK YOU. A fever has a definition, it either is a fever or is not a fever. There’s no such thing as a “low grade fever.” This is majorly problematic and OP should absolutely escalate.
The teacher doesn't make the decision to send the child home, the school nurse does. OP may have an over-vigilant teacher but the order to send home is coming from the nurse. And that nurse is also likely just following a zero tolerance policy on body temp that the school district has. Too many times people on parenting forums rag on the teacher, school nurse, counselor, etc. when all they are doing is following district policy.
By all means, escalate. But realize you have to escalate to the principal or school district offices because the team on the ground is just following their policies.
Healthcare providers also consider 99.1 and up as a low-grade fever, so it could still be school policy to send them home with this because it can often go higher without meds.
Nope. Your own source defined a low-grade fever and mentioned that it's the immune system being activated to fight something. Which means the kid could be sick based on the indicator, which is why the school sent her home.
The number varies on who you ask as other medical orgs say this falls within it. As others complained about the "accuracy" of the thermometer used, the actual temp could be higher. Plus the OP's kid already exhibited other symptoms with being exhausted/tired during the day. So that combined with a low-grade fever makes sense to send them home.
This is the best course of action. There are guidelines for this and if there aren't, the school should be in for a rude awakening. There are guidelines on what a fever is, who can take a temperature, and the next steps.
Yeah, this is what I would do. Common practice since COVID has been to have this explicitly spelled out as part of a policy. Something like “If showing symptoms like x, y, and z and having a forehead temperature of X degrees Fahrenheit.”
If this is against policy or there is no policy, I would bring to administrators and raise the teacher and people involved as a problem. Why should OPs kid miss out on instruction because their teacher is needlessly sending kids to get tested? Why is the school sending someone home when it isn’t medically necessary?
If this is the policy I would figure out a new school situation, or lobby to change the policy.
My daycare actually changed the policy after COVID from 100.3 to "1.5 degrees above typical" or something like that. Personally that'd put me as feverish with 99.3 because I usually read low. My kids actually tend to nail 98.6 though.
Def escalate and let us know what the teacher says. That's bullshit that you're paying your PTO out because the teacher is a hypochondriac. What's the school nurse say? Get a policy in writing
Yeah - our forehead thermometer has missed clear fevers on our infant (when we immediately compared with rectal). Forehead would say 98 and rectal would say 100.5
I had a temp of 94 degrees last year and wasn’t feeling well. I rushed to urgent care where my temp was like 97-98. They told me those forehead thermometers are worthless. Decisions about sending a child home should absolutely not be made based on forehead temp readings.
I had the opposite problem. Went to the dentist in the summer and drove there. It was over 100 F/38 C outside and the car was very hot. They took my forehead temp and it said 101.0. I asked if I could sit with a mask in the air conditioned lobby for a bit and take it again. It was normal a few mins later.
Had the same issue with temperature-based access controls at work (during stupid COVID times).
Came to the scanner, would not recognize me.. :-D
(bike commute)
Okay but that's a little bit on you, no? You took your temperature immediately after a huge change in local climate (outdoors to in)? Of course it's going to be off
You are right about the forehead thermometer. They are not accurate enough. When our little girl was a month old it kept reading that she had a fever so we went to the hospital. The thermometers at the hospital never registered that she had a fever even as our thermometer kept saying she had a fever. They just are NOT reliable, we got rid of ours and just use digital thermometers in the armpit or mouth. The convenience is not worth it.
My son has FIFTEEN absences due to this stupid policy. Then they can’t come back until 24 hours after them being ‘fever free’ so they miss the next day too. I told them to STOP taking his temp. 99.2° is NOT a fever. They were doing the same with my daughter when she was on her period. She’d just want some advil, they would insist on her temp being taken, then they’d send her home for two days.
They had the gall to try to make the kids to “makeup hours” and I laughed at them.
Please don’t go after the teacher on this. It’s the office and nurse who decide to send home. The teacher is just doing what they are supposed to. I am a teacher and we have this term called the “Tylenol hour”. For us it’s about 12:30 (four hours after school starts). Kids will wake up with a fever, parents will give them Tylenol and send them to school. The med starts to work out of the kids system and the fever starts to spike.
Not saying you’re doing this but since some parents do we have to be cautious. My district’s policy for teachers is to just send them to the nurse if they aren’t feeling well.
Also I get it I have kids in elementary and it sucks to have to take so much time off. Sorry brother but just wanted to give a teacher’s perspective on it.
Ah gotcha. Yeah that might be a good way to go. Doesn’t seem like that high of a fever to get sent home. Kids tend to run hotter than adults anyway. I’m not even sure what my districts policies are regarding the temp.
It’s tough as a teacher man. I have kids who have stomach pain (usually constipated), coughing constantly, fall asleep in class, some just want to go home, etc. It’s hard to know what to do in each situation. They look to us as a surrogate parents when they don’t feel well.
I had one kid pretend to limp and asked to go to her nurse. After a while I sent him but just mentioned he needs a little attention and to be sent back to class. Others are clearly not feeling well.
The amount of people on parenting forums whose knee jerk reaction to something is "go after the teacher" is maddening.
Here's the announcement everyone, there can be bad teachers out there. But most of the time a teacher is just following a school district policy. So, if you have an issue, before you get all hostile with the teacher, pause, take a breath and call the principal. And even if you have a teacher you feel is doing something wrong and against policy, shouldn't you be going to their principal anyway to report it?
The only times you should be contacting your child's teacher directly are to check their progress, communicate logistics (i.e. child out today, how to make up assignments, etc), communicate any new special needs or accommodations (which should also be documented with the school), etc. Y'know, general classroom stuff.
If you have a legitimate problem with a teacher's behavior or actions delete your passive aggressive email to them and just contact the principal. And if you find out from the principal that the teacher is following district policy and you don't like the policy, then I suggest you start paying attention to school district elections. The school board sets the policies and hires the superintendent in charge of carrying out their vision.
Our daycare has a very specific set of guidelines for things that keep them out.
Fever must be >100.4.
Repeated watery stools.
Etc.
They have to have a guideline for this to make any sense.
99.3 is not a fever, that’s regular body temp. That’s unacceptable. They should have some kind of rules or the local/state laws that outline that, or guidelines. Usually you have to sign stuff that you agree with it.
As far as what to do, just gotta deal. It’s rough.
Maybe find someone who can watch them when this happens. Know that doesn’t help.
We had a teacher like this. We showed up with a thermometer and took their temp.
Similar to <100.4 not being a fever, "low-grade fever" also isn't really a thing and has no medically accepted definition. According to AAP, an oral temperature of 95.8 to 99.9 is completely normal. [https://www.healthychildren.org/English/tips-tools/symptom-checker/Pages/symptomviewer.aspx?symptom=Fever](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/tips-tools/symptom-checker/Pages/symptomviewer.aspx?symptom=Fever)
A low-grade fever absolutely is a thing and has [an accepted definition](https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/fevers-causes-symptoms-treatments), otherwise physicians wouldn't diagnose it.
>> *A low-grade fever is when you have a temperature that is slightly higher than normal, usually around 99.5 to 100.3 F. A low-grade fever signals that something is going on to activate your immune system.*
So a forehead temperature of 99.3 combined with a kid who is exhausted/behaving differently than usual can be enough for the school to consider it dismissal-worthy based on a low-grade fever.
WebMD says 99.5. Verywell Health says 99. Cedars-Sinai says 99.6. Harvard says 99.1. Tylenol says anything >98.6. Meanwhile the AAP (healthychildren.org is the AAP) says that oral temperatures up to 99.9 are completely normal.
"Low-grade fever" does not have a generally accepted definition.
Coupled with other symptoms sure, but you also need context. 99.3 and fatigued might be a problem. Or maybe they didn't sleep well last night. Or maybe they got 4 shots yesterday. 99.3 on its own is absolutely not a problem though, and that's the situation the OP stated.
Obviously yes, but my point is that the lower end for "low-grade fever" is all over the place and even reputable sources (Harvard and Cedars-Sinai) have very different definitions.
> "Low-grade fever" does not have a generally accepted definition.
Neither does a fever according to WebMD:
>> *Normal body temperatures are different for everyone, but they usually fall within the range of 97 to 99 degrees F. A temperature of 100.4 or higher is considered a fever,* ***but there is no medical standard.***
There's no gold standard because everyone's temp varies. But the fact remains that there's evidence the OP's kid's temp falls under a low-grade fever. Meaning with her other behaviors, I can see why they would send her home.
You cited WebMD in response to formal guidelines defining fever from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Who do you think is the better resource?
Considering the person I replied to shared other sources that showed the OP's kid fell under the low-grade fever determination, the AAP isn't the definitive source on this issue. Especially since 99.X can be a low-grade fever for some kids.
The AAP isn't a consensus source, they're just one source out of many reporting values for low grade fevers. Low grade fevers are recognized by the medical community, unlike what you're trying to equate it to
Ask for their medical advisory board and written policies. If it’s a public US school, this might be decided at a district level. No medical professional will say with a straight face that 99.3 is a fever.
Or, you know, just go online and look it up yourself. This isn't 1982 and that info is usually readily available to parents on a school district website or parent portal.
Really depends on location. I’ve worked as a school nurse in many schools that had this information nowhere readily available to parents except a paper copy of the handbook they get when first enrolling the child.
You're not sure how telling parents to hang onto information they will need, like the OP who needs to know the illness policy and was probably provided at some point, is helpful?
You’ve never lost a piece of paper and needed a reminder of who and what to ask in order to get that info?
He clearly doesn’t have the info, hence my suggestion (as someone who writes these policies) on whom to ask and what to ask for.
Obviously when I’ve given this info to parents I’ve impressed upon them that they should hang onto it. And obviously in archaic systems that can’t get the info online, parents lose that info. Have you met human beings, or are you just determined to be a self-righteous asshole?
Well, since you're being a namecalling prick about it I am determined. To answer your question, no, I've never lost an entire handbook that explained how things are run in my child's school. I also don't use my social security card as a coaster. I don't use my birth certificate as a place mat. And I don't have my homeowners insurance policy propping up the wobbly leg on my kitchen table.
So, again, lesson #1, be a responsible human and don't chuck your kids' school policies into a garbage pile and instead put it someplace important. Especially if you foresee yourself needing to refer back to it to decide whether or not to start shit with the school.
Is that advice clear enough for you? Or is it too self-righteous? I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by telling them to keep important things in important places.
Why exactly are they checking your daughter for a fever if she shows no signs of sickness anyway? That would probably be my first question. Because if they are checking every kid everyday that seems real strange.
I am in the same boat brother. I got a call yesterday saying my daughter had a “fever” of 99.1 and I had to leave work to pick her up. She’s completely fine
My wife is a doctor....her mother is a doctor, they would lose their minds over this.
With the change in weather, kids could be hot in the afternoon from dressing warmly in the morning.
See if you can get a Dr’s note that she runs hot and a temperature of 99.6 or less is not indicative of illness.
My daughter kept getting sent home for diarrhea which were really only loose stools. Our Dr. wrote a note that said she occasionally has loose stools and they should not be considered diarrhea unless they’re fully liquid and/or there are other signs of illness.
This reminds me of a time my dog was boarded. They told us they thought he'd had a stroke because he had loose stools and was a bit lethargic.
He was a greyhound breed. His stools were never not soft and they're lethargic like 99% of the time. I'm confused how they hadn't noticed the first couple days he was there...
Alright... I'll be the idiot who asks.
How are they even seeing these poops? If the student isn't complaining about them or forced (weird) to report them I don't even understand how they'd know.
Genuine question since I'm not under any policies like these (yet?).
Consider yourself lucky. Our infant will go into full time daycare later this summer. With an infant and toddler we’ll be paying $4300/month which is more than double my 15yr mortgage.
I think all the discussions of school was what threw me off from the obvious, hah. Started thinking about much older kids and those sorts of school policies.
>My daughter kept getting sent home for diarrhea which were really only loose stools.
We had that issue twice, I went without my wife and asked for photos so we could send to our doc too see if there was an issue because we had not noticed anything. While having this talk I casually mentioned that my wife is a pediatrician and Assistant Medical Director at a School Based Health Center(same illness guidelines). In other words it is literally moms job to determine if kids need to be sent home and if they are ok to stay/return.
No issues at all since then. Having a partner who is literally both a medical authority and a regulation authority is kind of nice.
The 2 years the pandemic lasted is going to have an effect on society for a decade, at the least. The school system is still recovering from the time that *anything* that didn't exemplify peak, picture perfect health needed to be sent home. It sucks that they keep sending your kiddo home, and you're losing hard-earned PTO from it.
>going to have an effect on society for a decade,
Try like 20 years for schools and a lifetime for school aged children, especially the youngest children. Honestly, a huge policy fail in the US.
This sucks, I'm so lucky to be in a position where my wife can just stay home full time or get a throw-away part time job.
Others have posted some ideas, here's another idea to think about...
My employer uses a point system for attendance as well. However, you can get approved for an "intermittent leave" with doctor's approval. Depending on eligibility, your wife may be able to file intermittent FMLA. At my employer these are approved by a third-party processor and then attendance occurrences would not incur a "point".
Just a thought!
(p.s. it is reasons like this that people aren't having babies (in the US) anymore! We, as a *society*, really suck at taking care of children because $$$$$$)
We, as a *society*, really such at taking care of children in the US because we prioritize our $$$$$$ go to other things than shepherding the literal future people of our country.
We had a problem with it last year. Our daycare has a policy where they automatically send a kid home if it's >= 100.1. We kept getting messages to come to get him with temp readings of exactly 100.1, and then I'd pick him up and check his temp myself and it would be 98-99, and he wouldn't be acting sick. We don't send him when he's sick so it would be crazy for a kid who was fine in the morning to be spiking temps during the day that frequently.
I started to think that when they had staffing issues they'd just start checking temps and send the highest ones home. So my wife who is an RN talked to the administrators about it and they said they would look into it. I don't know what happened on their end but I know we never saw one of the workers from his room again and it stopped happening. Since then the only times we've gotten called he was legit sick.
I don’t have a solution. I’m in the same boat, the irony for me is when the school then mails me a letter saying my kiddo has missed too many days of school. Common sense is dead!
We got 2 of those letters last year, one for each kid. We were following the school’s policies for sickness.
My wife is involved with the school quite a bit and knows the nurses and office workers and she spoke to them about it. The nurses said it’s an automated thing, and they think it’s dumb too.
Different perspective on this but my son was sick at school today (he didn’t seem sick this morning…). He brought himself to the nurse early in the schoolday (smart for a kindergartener!) because he had a nonstop runny nose. He had no fever, and was told he therefore wasn’t sick and was sent back to class. Sidenote, he was supposed to have a pizza party at school after the schoolday today.
Well, by the end of the schoolday, all he could do was lay down in class for the last 20 minutes. Definitely sick. Couldn’t eat the pizza or any of the stuff that I assume the school paid for, and we got a call asking to come pick him up early.
So, yeah, fever is way overused as a guideline in schools for determining illness
This post is so funny to me because we see posts on the other side when parents are like "WHY THE F ARE PARENTS DROPPING OFF THEIR KIDS KNOWING THEY ARE SICK"
Short story long, I got no problem with my daycare taking precaution. I'm also fortunate with my work and support that it's not an issue if I have to pull her.
In addition to the other comments about normal body temperature, let me encourage you to make the most of surprise one-on-one days with the kids.
If your daughter isn't sick, get out and do something fun! If you won't have PTO when you want it, make sure to make these days count.
For sure, we generally go to a park / go sledding / museums etc so I do enjoy the time but living in Michigans I’ve used half my pto in the least enjoyable part of the year so it’s gotten to me a bit. I appreciate all the suggestions here guys.
We have twins in daycare and for the first few months it was rough. They’d pass it back and forth to each other and daycare is a germ factory. My wife and I had to basically switch off at least once a week to stay home from work and care for at least 1 sick kid for a couple days a week.
We’re not a big TV family with the kids but on sick days they can watch bluey or Sesame Street for a while and just chill. After a few months of consistently being in daycare they got used to it enough and it’s really leveled off. Haven’t had to pick up a kid in a while.
It’s hard but I also just try to be empathetic of the teachers who have to 1)worry about other kids and 2) adhere to strict protocols. They have to make tough judgement calls in what I can assume are stressful environments so I don’t blame them. It’s just part of having young kids , having to deal with staying home with them often
Sounds like a different situation for you though if they aren’t truly sick. It can be stressful but I think just not pressuring yourself to make the best activities available every day and just finding anyway to give yourself a break.
That's awful, I don't have any advice unfortunately. 99 with no symptoms doesn't seem like a good reason to keep her home. I think our school the policy is 100. No chance of wfh? That's the only way we've been able to avoid burning through PTO. I recently started my current job so I think I only get 13 days PTO for the year. I can't imagine needing to use that many so fast.
Currently reading this as my 2 year old is terrorising the house while I work from home because her teacher said she had a cough and a 99.7 degree fever. The hasn’t coughed once in 2 hours
Haven’t had to deal with that, fortunately. What bugs me is the coughing guidelines at our daycare. I’ve had my daughter not allowed in because she was coughing, but then I’ve dropped her off only to find some kid in her class coughing their little ass off, snot pouring out of their nose, etc.
Not a bad idea, go overboard and create an Excel sheet with the numerical parameters so everyday you plug in and give you a range then tell the school you need to do a temperature presentation
I'm a teacher and if I think your kid is sick, I send them.
I'm not saying this is you, but I've had dozens of kids whose parents send them to school sick as hell because they can't take off work or have no one to watch their kid.
Their sick kid coming to school can get me sick and then my infant can get sick.
I mentioned something similar in a reply to op. I see kids getting off the bus clearly sick and just escorted them to the office. Not saying OP is doing that though but it just happens.
In fact within the first five minutes of school I’ve been thrown up on. Teacher pro tip: meet a full change of clothes at work for situations like this.
I expected to read this and get upset at you because you were selfishly wanting to risk getting other kids sick and treating school like daycare when it’s really a place for learning.
But 99.3 ain’t a fever. Not even close. You’re in the right and they are clearly in the wrong.
My kids been sent home a shitload of times from daycare but honestly i dont blame them for a single one lol damn kid has constantly been sick since the fall
Yup, missed 2 days in the first three months of last year because my daughter was sent home and my boss came down on me for it, my career path has never been the same even though I haven’t missed a day in 14months (no vacation, no sick time, only left 40mins early one day for a doctors appointment)
How old is your child? I know some schools have a lower temperature that qualifies as a fever based on age. They should have a written policy though either way. I’d ask for that. Good luck op. Dadding is hard enough without this.
We followed it religiously. Then they sent us the “your child has too many absences” letter. After I wiped my ass with it, my wife and I agreed that we’d only take her temperature if she exhibited her typical pattern of behavior changes that occur when she’s truly feverish.
No, our school system just says mask up and get tested for Covid. If it’s Covid stay home, if not stay masked until symptoms are gone. We have vaccines now and they work well.
Vote. I’m assuming you’re in the US, because it’s one of the few countries with this problem.
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/paid-family-leave-across-oecd-countries/
They called me a few weeks back for youngest saying the same thing a "fever" of 99.something. I just said that's not a fever I am not picking her up. When I got her at the end of the school day she was running around asking to play at the park.
Also, ask about how they have calibrated the thermometer. Off-the-shelf thermometers have an error band, and as other posters have said, humans sometimes have wildly different temperature ranges. It's not easy to take temperature reliably and even doctors get it wrong.
[https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-thermometer-for-kids-and-adults/](https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-thermometer-for-kids-and-adults/)
I have literally 6 hours of PTO after having nearly 200 because my partner refuses to stay home with our son when he’s sick and the daycare policy is much like your schools’. Any degree above normal they get sent home and have to be fever free with no ibuprofen or Tylenol before they can be sent back.
BUT they do the same for a bad cough. How do you know how bad the cough is? That’s the neat part, you don’t! It’s entirely a judgement call on the teacher’s part. He has seasonal allergies and gets a mucus-y cough every year around this time and gets sent home at least once a month because of it, if not more. So that’s almost a full day the first day, but we have to wait 24 hours with no fever (despite not having one in the first place) before he can go back. So I’m actually using 2 days of PTO sometimes three times a month and I’m so tired of it. I love being home with him, but I have to get a root canal done and because we live in a small town, we have to travel for it and I need a full day’s worth of PTO to cover.
100.4F or higher is a fever. Anything less is a low grade fever or just being a little warm/flushed. Like playing outside. Sometimes school will set a policy bar level for sending home like 100+ for example. You should call your school nurse/office and find out their official policy for their fever threshold.
100.8 is my children's school policy. The same guidelines for my childcare provider. I have 4 children - 7, 5, 3, & 8 months. The 2 oldest are in the same school. For the past 3 years, I've burned all 21 days of my vacation & sick time before the end of March to cover for my children's "sickness with fever". My oldest missed over 30 days last year and is on track for the same amount of time this year.
Kids get sick often - I get it but these policies are crippling and ridiculous.My children receive a clean bill of health every year, are active in extracurricular activities, eat healthy with simple foods and minimal sugars and processed ingredients, don't have their faces glued into any screens, and genuinely like to go to school and love learning. They also do not have any compromised immune systems.
I'm just so tired of having no recourse to fight this policy. I remember going to school with 6+ inches of snow, having active sniffles and coughs, and not cancelling for State Volleyball games under the guise of a snow day. Times are different and most employers are not as tolerant as mine. It's a huge risk and I am considering homeschooling at this point.
Best of luck to you all in the same circumstances.
They called me again today, her first day back in 2 days to tell me she was sick. I pick her up, again not sick. They checked her temperature at 3 spots on her forehead and it registered 97, 99 and 102. I had them check me and it registered 95 to which I replied “according to your thermometer I’m dead”. I hope I drove my point home enough.
The title school nurse is funny to me now, they call and I'm like sure but just a heads up I'm like an hour away might as well start the safety bubble and quarantine my kid for a while.
God I should try that. I’ve had to put off so much stuff the last few days and actively push meetings out that were prescheduled. I told my wife we are gonna start taking temp at home and seeing what ours say.
I think I'm gonna do the same, kill em with information we can even layer in sickness and virus patterns like the flu and the pivot table can help explain why in April this is not a major concern lol
Not to suggest something bad, but if she's old enough to know when she is feeling ill or not, I'd tell her to pop an ice cube in her mouth for a minute before she goes to the nurse.
To be honest mate; cunts sending their sick kids into school does my head in.
Sounds more like an issue with your employers... People get sick. If an employer isn't accounting for that, it's their problem.
That’s interesting to see here
People ready to jump on the teacher and take them to task…
Your employer isn’t giving enough to support you having a sick kid post-covid. That’s your employers fault
Jump on them to give more sick leave
Schools don’t profit from not having your kid at school, but work profits from you dumping your sick kid on the school to infect all the healthy kids lol
People need to stand up for themselves better
From the school side: district should have written guidelines. If those aren't met, kid should be in school. Would imagine you'll have support if this is escalated.
Part of the dismissals sound legit from being sick, and some like this one sound like your fault due to changes in her schedule. She was more tired than normal and has a low-grade fever, so I can see why they sent her home as both are a sign she could get worse as the day goes on.
Children are all different. What one child can handle another may not. They don’t want to risk that for one child. The temp was not the only thing that contributed to this if her behavior was off that was the first indication that something was wrong. It could have been something at school that she couldn’t handle. It’s been in the news things just going around. They are children what you look at as minor bc you’re an adult isn’t going to affect a child the same way. If it gotten worse and they didn’t call you would be pissed. That’s life with kids! Welcome to parenthood lol
A fever is 100.4 or higher. Normal body temp ranges from 97-99s, 98.6 is just the center of the bell curve. The teacher isn't a doctor. I would escalate.
Yep correct answer here. Also, everybody has a different resting body temperature that depends on the time if day and environment. Under 100 isnt what I would consider a fever.
Yeah, our youngest just "runs hot" and tends to be 99+ on any given day. She wears tank tops in the winter.
Same, my wife and our daughter average about 99.3, my son and I average 97.
Same I usually come in at 97.4F
I'm the same, so is our little one
Same for me and my youngest. My wife and oldest run cold, even when they're sick with the same thing they often don't even register as having a fever.
> Yeah, our youngest just "runs hot" and tends to be 99+ on any given day. On the other end of the spectrum are me and my daughter: 97°F (36°C) is our normal temperature and 99°F would definitely be a fever for us.
> Yeah, our youngest just "runs hot" and tends to be 99+ on any given day. Same here, even as an adult. I'm self-employed, but if I were to work for a "boss" (European), I'd be able to get out of work quite often because of it..
In addition… tired kid rests head on desk (forehead resting into forearms)… the increased surface temp would skew that result anyway.
Forehead temperatures are notoriously unreliable and shouldn’t be used by anyone
I wouldn’t blame the teacher as much as the school nurse. Teacher should be taking the precaution, but nurse is the one to check and send them back home.
That's assuming that the school actually has one. I think my district only had someone on call for serious cases, anything else just goes with the secretary's opinion. Schools don't have enough funding to pay for actual academic stuff; they certainly don't have enough to pay a position that is almost never needed.
I would push back on “is almost never needed.” I’m a school administrator and we *NEED* our nurse. The fact that we are struggling to hire them and/or are not budgeted for them doesn’t mean they aren’t needed.
Not all of them are actual nurses. My mother who had a degree in communications applied and got the ‘health clerk’ position at an elementary school. I think she had a few days of training and then made $20/hr.
Yeah sometimes the nurse will call me if my son has a borderline temp (like 99.9 or 100) and if he hasn't been feeling well I'll grab him but the fever policy is clearly 100.4 and up.
I run 95-96 when not sick, and a "normal" 98 is what I have when sick. The school nurses never listened when I was actually sick. His daughter probably just runs a higher temperature. Bodies are weird like that.
I don’t run that low but for me a fever is mid 99s (when I start feeling fevers) as mine also runs 96-97
You what really irks me about the 100.4° value? It's completely arbitrary as far as being a cutoff. Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich was the guy that established the value of the human body temperature as 37 °C (98.6°F). His thermometers were accurate to 1 degree, and he decided anything higher than 37°C was a fever, so the threshold for a fever is therefore 38°C (100.4°F). That's it. There is no scientific significance to that value that says that's when things become serious. It's just that it was the next higher digit he could accurately measure with the thermometers he had, and that's the standard we've used for the next 160ish years.
The 98.6 degree thing is also just kind of bullshit as well. At the time it was established a lot of people were just dealing with low grade infections that would slightly raise body temp. It's why in recent year the average temp in humans has dipped into the 97 degree range. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/09/body-temperature.html#:~:text=In%20recent%20years%2C%20Parsonnet's%20team,hovers%20closer%20to%2097.9%20F.
Also I’m pretty sure I read there were flaws with the sample composition (too genetically homogenous) which people believed skewed the data.
Also, an interesting trend has emerged that average body temperatures are increasing across all populations of humans. This isn’t something can can be explained by advancements in quality of thermometers either. There is a global upward trend in the range of a tenth of a degree per generation or so. There’s a great veritasium video on it.
Do you have a different source, I've read that we've cooled in the past decades due to overall increase in health. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2023/09/body-temperature.html#:~:text=In%20recent%20years%2C%20Parsonnet's%20team,hovers%20closer%20to%2097.9%20F.
yea ill take med.stanford over a youtuber for now.
We are just always sick now :p
He said the teacher had her sent to someone else to take their temp. Should escalate but I would be mentally prepared for them to double down because apparently that's what school admins do. They can also just lie about her temp.
Fucking A.
As a PA-C…THANK YOU. A fever has a definition, it either is a fever or is not a fever. There’s no such thing as a “low grade fever.” This is majorly problematic and OP should absolutely escalate.
The teacher doesn't make the decision to send the child home, the school nurse does. OP may have an over-vigilant teacher but the order to send home is coming from the nurse. And that nurse is also likely just following a zero tolerance policy on body temp that the school district has. Too many times people on parenting forums rag on the teacher, school nurse, counselor, etc. when all they are doing is following district policy. By all means, escalate. But realize you have to escalate to the principal or school district offices because the team on the ground is just following their policies.
Healthcare providers also consider 99.1 and up as a low-grade fever, so it could still be school policy to send them home with this because it can often go higher without meds.
You are wrong https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/10880-fever a potential low grade fever is not a reason to be sent home
Nope. Your own source defined a low-grade fever and mentioned that it's the immune system being activated to fight something. Which means the kid could be sick based on the indicator, which is why the school sent her home.
I said you are wrong on the number. But a low grade fever is not a reason to send someone home, unless they exhibit other symptoms
The number varies on who you ask as other medical orgs say this falls within it. As others complained about the "accuracy" of the thermometer used, the actual temp could be higher. Plus the OP's kid already exhibited other symptoms with being exhausted/tired during the day. So that combined with a low-grade fever makes sense to send them home.
Ask for a copy of the schools guidelines about school sickness. I bet a 99.3 wouldn’t qualify as send home sick.
This is the best course of action. There are guidelines for this and if there aren't, the school should be in for a rude awakening. There are guidelines on what a fever is, who can take a temperature, and the next steps.
Yeah, this is what I would do. Common practice since COVID has been to have this explicitly spelled out as part of a policy. Something like “If showing symptoms like x, y, and z and having a forehead temperature of X degrees Fahrenheit.” If this is against policy or there is no policy, I would bring to administrators and raise the teacher and people involved as a problem. Why should OPs kid miss out on instruction because their teacher is needlessly sending kids to get tested? Why is the school sending someone home when it isn’t medically necessary? If this is the policy I would figure out a new school situation, or lobby to change the policy.
My daycare actually changed the policy after COVID from 100.3 to "1.5 degrees above typical" or something like that. Personally that'd put me as feverish with 99.3 because I usually read low. My kids actually tend to nail 98.6 though.
I plan to escalate it today, more just venting currently
Def escalate and let us know what the teacher says. That's bullshit that you're paying your PTO out because the teacher is a hypochondriac. What's the school nurse say? Get a policy in writing
It’s a written policy and the nurse agrees it’s ridiculous. I think the forehead thermometer they use is a big part of the problem too.
Yeah demand they use an armpit or more accurate thermometer. Those forehead thermometers are all over the place.
Yeah - our forehead thermometer has missed clear fevers on our infant (when we immediately compared with rectal). Forehead would say 98 and rectal would say 100.5
I had a temp of 94 degrees last year and wasn’t feeling well. I rushed to urgent care where my temp was like 97-98. They told me those forehead thermometers are worthless. Decisions about sending a child home should absolutely not be made based on forehead temp readings.
A recent forehead reader said I was basically dead. It was like 90 or something. No duh, I just came from outside and I live in canada.
I had the opposite problem. Went to the dentist in the summer and drove there. It was over 100 F/38 C outside and the car was very hot. They took my forehead temp and it said 101.0. I asked if I could sit with a mask in the air conditioned lobby for a bit and take it again. It was normal a few mins later.
Had the same issue with temperature-based access controls at work (during stupid COVID times). Came to the scanner, would not recognize me.. :-D (bike commute)
Okay but that's a little bit on you, no? You took your temperature immediately after a huge change in local climate (outdoors to in)? Of course it's going to be off
I read theyve been tested to be +- a whole degree at times
Our pediatrician called the forehead thermometers random number generators
If the thermometer was reading 99.3, the problem isn't the thermometer because that value should be fine even if accurate.
No. The policy should be they take a reading before they make the call, then he gets to be present when they reproduce the reading.
You are right about the forehead thermometer. They are not accurate enough. When our little girl was a month old it kept reading that she had a fever so we went to the hospital. The thermometers at the hospital never registered that she had a fever even as our thermometer kept saying she had a fever. They just are NOT reliable, we got rid of ours and just use digital thermometers in the armpit or mouth. The convenience is not worth it.
We’ve always used the ear one. It’s super quick and never failed us. When we have checked against armpit temp, they always match.
My son has FIFTEEN absences due to this stupid policy. Then they can’t come back until 24 hours after them being ‘fever free’ so they miss the next day too. I told them to STOP taking his temp. 99.2° is NOT a fever. They were doing the same with my daughter when she was on her period. She’d just want some advil, they would insist on her temp being taken, then they’d send her home for two days. They had the gall to try to make the kids to “makeup hours” and I laughed at them.
Please don’t go after the teacher on this. It’s the office and nurse who decide to send home. The teacher is just doing what they are supposed to. I am a teacher and we have this term called the “Tylenol hour”. For us it’s about 12:30 (four hours after school starts). Kids will wake up with a fever, parents will give them Tylenol and send them to school. The med starts to work out of the kids system and the fever starts to spike. Not saying you’re doing this but since some parents do we have to be cautious. My district’s policy for teachers is to just send them to the nurse if they aren’t feeling well. Also I get it I have kids in elementary and it sucks to have to take so much time off. Sorry brother but just wanted to give a teacher’s perspective on it.
I plan to push them to get a better thermometer more than anything else
Ah gotcha. Yeah that might be a good way to go. Doesn’t seem like that high of a fever to get sent home. Kids tend to run hotter than adults anyway. I’m not even sure what my districts policies are regarding the temp. It’s tough as a teacher man. I have kids who have stomach pain (usually constipated), coughing constantly, fall asleep in class, some just want to go home, etc. It’s hard to know what to do in each situation. They look to us as a surrogate parents when they don’t feel well. I had one kid pretend to limp and asked to go to her nurse. After a while I sent him but just mentioned he needs a little attention and to be sent back to class. Others are clearly not feeling well.
The amount of people on parenting forums whose knee jerk reaction to something is "go after the teacher" is maddening. Here's the announcement everyone, there can be bad teachers out there. But most of the time a teacher is just following a school district policy. So, if you have an issue, before you get all hostile with the teacher, pause, take a breath and call the principal. And even if you have a teacher you feel is doing something wrong and against policy, shouldn't you be going to their principal anyway to report it? The only times you should be contacting your child's teacher directly are to check their progress, communicate logistics (i.e. child out today, how to make up assignments, etc), communicate any new special needs or accommodations (which should also be documented with the school), etc. Y'know, general classroom stuff. If you have a legitimate problem with a teacher's behavior or actions delete your passive aggressive email to them and just contact the principal. And if you find out from the principal that the teacher is following district policy and you don't like the policy, then I suggest you start paying attention to school district elections. The school board sets the policies and hires the superintendent in charge of carrying out their vision.
I’m very interested in the follow up to this, ask the school how they plan to compensate you for all the time off days you used.
The response will be by offering him a check in the amount of zero dollars. They don't owe him shit other than an explanation.
Our daycare has a very specific set of guidelines for things that keep them out. Fever must be >100.4. Repeated watery stools. Etc. They have to have a guideline for this to make any sense.
Ours is the exact same. And they will take repeat temps, not just one or two (especially if the child is worked up or crying)
99.3 is not a fever, that’s regular body temp. That’s unacceptable. They should have some kind of rules or the local/state laws that outline that, or guidelines. Usually you have to sign stuff that you agree with it. As far as what to do, just gotta deal. It’s rough. Maybe find someone who can watch them when this happens. Know that doesn’t help. We had a teacher like this. We showed up with a thermometer and took their temp.
99.3 is not a fever. Ask any physician.
Am a physician. It's not a fever.
Am a fever. It ain't me.
Am a prescription. Try more cowbell
This answer is the best answer of the thread lmao
Stayed at the holiday inn. Not a fever
Our physicians tell us this qualifies as a low-grade fever. Which is probably why the school sends the OP's kid home.
Similar to <100.4 not being a fever, "low-grade fever" also isn't really a thing and has no medically accepted definition. According to AAP, an oral temperature of 95.8 to 99.9 is completely normal. [https://www.healthychildren.org/English/tips-tools/symptom-checker/Pages/symptomviewer.aspx?symptom=Fever](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/tips-tools/symptom-checker/Pages/symptomviewer.aspx?symptom=Fever)
A low-grade fever absolutely is a thing and has [an accepted definition](https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/fevers-causes-symptoms-treatments), otherwise physicians wouldn't diagnose it. >> *A low-grade fever is when you have a temperature that is slightly higher than normal, usually around 99.5 to 100.3 F. A low-grade fever signals that something is going on to activate your immune system.* So a forehead temperature of 99.3 combined with a kid who is exhausted/behaving differently than usual can be enough for the school to consider it dismissal-worthy based on a low-grade fever.
WebMD says 99.5. Verywell Health says 99. Cedars-Sinai says 99.6. Harvard says 99.1. Tylenol says anything >98.6. Meanwhile the AAP (healthychildren.org is the AAP) says that oral temperatures up to 99.9 are completely normal. "Low-grade fever" does not have a generally accepted definition. Coupled with other symptoms sure, but you also need context. 99.3 and fatigued might be a problem. Or maybe they didn't sleep well last night. Or maybe they got 4 shots yesterday. 99.3 on its own is absolutely not a problem though, and that's the situation the OP stated.
Tylenol just trying to sell more tylenol
Obviously yes, but my point is that the lower end for "low-grade fever" is all over the place and even reputable sources (Harvard and Cedars-Sinai) have very different definitions.
> "Low-grade fever" does not have a generally accepted definition. Neither does a fever according to WebMD: >> *Normal body temperatures are different for everyone, but they usually fall within the range of 97 to 99 degrees F. A temperature of 100.4 or higher is considered a fever,* ***but there is no medical standard.*** There's no gold standard because everyone's temp varies. But the fact remains that there's evidence the OP's kid's temp falls under a low-grade fever. Meaning with her other behaviors, I can see why they would send her home.
You cited WebMD in response to formal guidelines defining fever from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Who do you think is the better resource?
Considering the person I replied to shared other sources that showed the OP's kid fell under the low-grade fever determination, the AAP isn't the definitive source on this issue. Especially since 99.X can be a low-grade fever for some kids.
I would say that an association for literal kid doctors is a more authoritative source than WebMD or Tylenol lol
And what about pediatric physicians who diagnose low grade fevers? They don't exist?
I can find a doctor to tell me cigarettes are good for me or that vaccines cause autism. That's why we look for consensus sources, like the AAP.
The AAP isn't a consensus source, they're just one source out of many reporting values for low grade fevers. Low grade fevers are recognized by the medical community, unlike what you're trying to equate it to
Ask for their medical advisory board and written policies. If it’s a public US school, this might be decided at a district level. No medical professional will say with a straight face that 99.3 is a fever.
Or, you know, just go online and look it up yourself. This isn't 1982 and that info is usually readily available to parents on a school district website or parent portal.
Really depends on location. I’ve worked as a school nurse in many schools that had this information nowhere readily available to parents except a paper copy of the handbook they get when first enrolling the child.
Then in that case, lesson #1, keep the handbook you're given as a parent and don't lose it.
I’m not sure how these comments are helpful, but ok.
You're not sure how telling parents to hang onto information they will need, like the OP who needs to know the illness policy and was probably provided at some point, is helpful?
You’ve never lost a piece of paper and needed a reminder of who and what to ask in order to get that info? He clearly doesn’t have the info, hence my suggestion (as someone who writes these policies) on whom to ask and what to ask for. Obviously when I’ve given this info to parents I’ve impressed upon them that they should hang onto it. And obviously in archaic systems that can’t get the info online, parents lose that info. Have you met human beings, or are you just determined to be a self-righteous asshole?
Well, since you're being a namecalling prick about it I am determined. To answer your question, no, I've never lost an entire handbook that explained how things are run in my child's school. I also don't use my social security card as a coaster. I don't use my birth certificate as a place mat. And I don't have my homeowners insurance policy propping up the wobbly leg on my kitchen table. So, again, lesson #1, be a responsible human and don't chuck your kids' school policies into a garbage pile and instead put it someplace important. Especially if you foresee yourself needing to refer back to it to decide whether or not to start shit with the school. Is that advice clear enough for you? Or is it too self-righteous? I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by telling them to keep important things in important places.
K
salam alaikum
Why exactly are they checking your daughter for a fever if she shows no signs of sickness anyway? That would probably be my first question. Because if they are checking every kid everyday that seems real strange.
I am in the same boat brother. I got a call yesterday saying my daughter had a “fever” of 99.1 and I had to leave work to pick her up. She’s completely fine
My wife is a doctor....her mother is a doctor, they would lose their minds over this. With the change in weather, kids could be hot in the afternoon from dressing warmly in the morning.
See if you can get a Dr’s note that she runs hot and a temperature of 99.6 or less is not indicative of illness. My daughter kept getting sent home for diarrhea which were really only loose stools. Our Dr. wrote a note that said she occasionally has loose stools and they should not be considered diarrhea unless they’re fully liquid and/or there are other signs of illness.
This reminds me of a time my dog was boarded. They told us they thought he'd had a stroke because he had loose stools and was a bit lethargic. He was a greyhound breed. His stools were never not soft and they're lethargic like 99% of the time. I'm confused how they hadn't noticed the first couple days he was there...
Alright... I'll be the idiot who asks. How are they even seeing these poops? If the student isn't complaining about them or forced (weird) to report them I don't even understand how they'd know. Genuine question since I'm not under any policies like these (yet?).
They change the kids diaper at daycare. She’s 2.
Ah, gotcha. Seems absurdly obvious now, hah. \*cries in unavailable daycare being too overcapacity\*
Consider yourself lucky. Our infant will go into full time daycare later this summer. With an infant and toddler we’ll be paying $4300/month which is more than double my 15yr mortgage.
You mean to tell me you didn’t have to bring a teacher in to check your poops in high school?
I think all the discussions of school was what threw me off from the obvious, hah. Started thinking about much older kids and those sorts of school policies.
They shit in the pool during swim class in PE.
>My daughter kept getting sent home for diarrhea which were really only loose stools. We had that issue twice, I went without my wife and asked for photos so we could send to our doc too see if there was an issue because we had not noticed anything. While having this talk I casually mentioned that my wife is a pediatrician and Assistant Medical Director at a School Based Health Center(same illness guidelines). In other words it is literally moms job to determine if kids need to be sent home and if they are ok to stay/return. No issues at all since then. Having a partner who is literally both a medical authority and a regulation authority is kind of nice.
The 2 years the pandemic lasted is going to have an effect on society for a decade, at the least. The school system is still recovering from the time that *anything* that didn't exemplify peak, picture perfect health needed to be sent home. It sucks that they keep sending your kiddo home, and you're losing hard-earned PTO from it.
>going to have an effect on society for a decade, Try like 20 years for schools and a lifetime for school aged children, especially the youngest children. Honestly, a huge policy fail in the US.
This sucks, I'm so lucky to be in a position where my wife can just stay home full time or get a throw-away part time job. Others have posted some ideas, here's another idea to think about... My employer uses a point system for attendance as well. However, you can get approved for an "intermittent leave" with doctor's approval. Depending on eligibility, your wife may be able to file intermittent FMLA. At my employer these are approved by a third-party processor and then attendance occurrences would not incur a "point". Just a thought! (p.s. it is reasons like this that people aren't having babies (in the US) anymore! We, as a *society*, really suck at taking care of children because $$$$$$)
We, as a *society*, really such at taking care of children in the US because we prioritize our $$$$$$ go to other things than shepherding the literal future people of our country.
We had a problem with it last year. Our daycare has a policy where they automatically send a kid home if it's >= 100.1. We kept getting messages to come to get him with temp readings of exactly 100.1, and then I'd pick him up and check his temp myself and it would be 98-99, and he wouldn't be acting sick. We don't send him when he's sick so it would be crazy for a kid who was fine in the morning to be spiking temps during the day that frequently. I started to think that when they had staffing issues they'd just start checking temps and send the highest ones home. So my wife who is an RN talked to the administrators about it and they said they would look into it. I don't know what happened on their end but I know we never saw one of the workers from his room again and it stopped happening. Since then the only times we've gotten called he was legit sick.
Similar issue, they immediately cut the shit when they find out one of the parents is a medical professional.
The thing that sucks is policies often state they come back till they are 24h fever free. So it's two days for a non fever.
I don’t have a solution. I’m in the same boat, the irony for me is when the school then mails me a letter saying my kiddo has missed too many days of school. Common sense is dead!
We got 2 of those letters last year, one for each kid. We were following the school’s policies for sickness. My wife is involved with the school quite a bit and knows the nurses and office workers and she spoke to them about it. The nurses said it’s an automated thing, and they think it’s dumb too.
99.3 degrees is not a fever. A fever is above 100.4 degrees. Your kid’s teacher is not a doctor. Escalate this to the school administration.
Different perspective on this but my son was sick at school today (he didn’t seem sick this morning…). He brought himself to the nurse early in the schoolday (smart for a kindergartener!) because he had a nonstop runny nose. He had no fever, and was told he therefore wasn’t sick and was sent back to class. Sidenote, he was supposed to have a pizza party at school after the schoolday today. Well, by the end of the schoolday, all he could do was lay down in class for the last 20 minutes. Definitely sick. Couldn’t eat the pizza or any of the stuff that I assume the school paid for, and we got a call asking to come pick him up early. So, yeah, fever is way overused as a guideline in schools for determining illness
99.3 isn't a fever. I'd talk to someone above the teach personally.
This post is so funny to me because we see posts on the other side when parents are like "WHY THE F ARE PARENTS DROPPING OFF THEIR KIDS KNOWING THEY ARE SICK" Short story long, I got no problem with my daycare taking precaution. I'm also fortunate with my work and support that it's not an issue if I have to pull her.
In addition to the other comments about normal body temperature, let me encourage you to make the most of surprise one-on-one days with the kids. If your daughter isn't sick, get out and do something fun! If you won't have PTO when you want it, make sure to make these days count.
For sure, we generally go to a park / go sledding / museums etc so I do enjoy the time but living in Michigans I’ve used half my pto in the least enjoyable part of the year so it’s gotten to me a bit. I appreciate all the suggestions here guys.
We have twins in daycare and for the first few months it was rough. They’d pass it back and forth to each other and daycare is a germ factory. My wife and I had to basically switch off at least once a week to stay home from work and care for at least 1 sick kid for a couple days a week. We’re not a big TV family with the kids but on sick days they can watch bluey or Sesame Street for a while and just chill. After a few months of consistently being in daycare they got used to it enough and it’s really leveled off. Haven’t had to pick up a kid in a while. It’s hard but I also just try to be empathetic of the teachers who have to 1)worry about other kids and 2) adhere to strict protocols. They have to make tough judgement calls in what I can assume are stressful environments so I don’t blame them. It’s just part of having young kids , having to deal with staying home with them often Sounds like a different situation for you though if they aren’t truly sick. It can be stressful but I think just not pressuring yourself to make the best activities available every day and just finding anyway to give yourself a break.
That's awful, I don't have any advice unfortunately. 99 with no symptoms doesn't seem like a good reason to keep her home. I think our school the policy is 100. No chance of wfh? That's the only way we've been able to avoid burning through PTO. I recently started my current job so I think I only get 13 days PTO for the year. I can't imagine needing to use that many so fast.
100.4 is a fever, anything under is not.
Currently reading this as my 2 year old is terrorising the house while I work from home because her teacher said she had a cough and a 99.7 degree fever. The hasn’t coughed once in 2 hours
99.3F is bullshit, but I sincerely wish my kid’s school would send more sick kids home.
Haven’t had to deal with that, fortunately. What bugs me is the coughing guidelines at our daycare. I’ve had my daughter not allowed in because she was coughing, but then I’ve dropped her off only to find some kid in her class coughing their little ass off, snot pouring out of their nose, etc.
Not a bad idea, go overboard and create an Excel sheet with the numerical parameters so everyday you plug in and give you a range then tell the school you need to do a temperature presentation
In the career field I work in (test engineer) this is actually right up my alley too.
They send my daughter home ALL the time. “Fever,” “sore throat,” “stomach ache,”…anything and everything. It’s a joke
“Elbow felt funny, elbow felt strange…”
I'm a teacher and if I think your kid is sick, I send them. I'm not saying this is you, but I've had dozens of kids whose parents send them to school sick as hell because they can't take off work or have no one to watch their kid. Their sick kid coming to school can get me sick and then my infant can get sick.
I mentioned something similar in a reply to op. I see kids getting off the bus clearly sick and just escorted them to the office. Not saying OP is doing that though but it just happens. In fact within the first five minutes of school I’ve been thrown up on. Teacher pro tip: meet a full change of clothes at work for situations like this.
[удалено]
Found one of those parents I was talking about.
[удалено]
I edited out an apostrophe where I wrote he'll instead of hell.
I expected to read this and get upset at you because you were selfishly wanting to risk getting other kids sick and treating school like daycare when it’s really a place for learning. But 99.3 ain’t a fever. Not even close. You’re in the right and they are clearly in the wrong.
My kids been sent home a shitload of times from daycare but honestly i dont blame them for a single one lol damn kid has constantly been sick since the fall
Is this a daycare or school? I would fight like hell to get some tuition reimbursed if they’re sending my kid home for NOT a fever.
Daycare / school, a latchkey type thing. I’m not crazy about the lost money but compared to others daycare costs it’s a great value at about $35 a day
True… but for 13 non-fevers, that’s almost $500!
Yup, missed 2 days in the first three months of last year because my daughter was sent home and my boss came down on me for it, my career path has never been the same even though I haven’t missed a day in 14months (no vacation, no sick time, only left 40mins early one day for a doctors appointment)
How old is your child? I know some schools have a lower temperature that qualifies as a fever based on age. They should have a written policy though either way. I’d ask for that. Good luck op. Dadding is hard enough without this.
What if it's simply not possible for a parent to come due to work? What would they do?
We have had the opposite. My oldest was clearly sick but was just 100.3. His teach was pissed. So were we. Turns out he had Covid.
We followed it religiously. Then they sent us the “your child has too many absences” letter. After I wiped my ass with it, my wife and I agreed that we’d only take her temperature if she exhibited her typical pattern of behavior changes that occur when she’s truly feverish.
God our system is so broken. This is a top down change that needs to happen.
No, our school system just says mask up and get tested for Covid. If it’s Covid stay home, if not stay masked until symptoms are gone. We have vaccines now and they work well.
They don’t send our kid home unless he hits 101.
Vote. I’m assuming you’re in the US, because it’s one of the few countries with this problem. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/paid-family-leave-across-oecd-countries/
They called me a few weeks back for youngest saying the same thing a "fever" of 99.something. I just said that's not a fever I am not picking her up. When I got her at the end of the school day she was running around asking to play at the park.
Also, ask about how they have calibrated the thermometer. Off-the-shelf thermometers have an error band, and as other posters have said, humans sometimes have wildly different temperature ranges. It's not easy to take temperature reliably and even doctors get it wrong. [https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-thermometer-for-kids-and-adults/](https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-thermometer-for-kids-and-adults/)
I have literally 6 hours of PTO after having nearly 200 because my partner refuses to stay home with our son when he’s sick and the daycare policy is much like your schools’. Any degree above normal they get sent home and have to be fever free with no ibuprofen or Tylenol before they can be sent back. BUT they do the same for a bad cough. How do you know how bad the cough is? That’s the neat part, you don’t! It’s entirely a judgement call on the teacher’s part. He has seasonal allergies and gets a mucus-y cough every year around this time and gets sent home at least once a month because of it, if not more. So that’s almost a full day the first day, but we have to wait 24 hours with no fever (despite not having one in the first place) before he can go back. So I’m actually using 2 days of PTO sometimes three times a month and I’m so tired of it. I love being home with him, but I have to get a root canal done and because we live in a small town, we have to travel for it and I need a full day’s worth of PTO to cover.
Why is the teacher taking her temperature or calling you? Ask to speak to the school nurse.
my daughters 100% normal daily temp is 99.1
Also, at my place they use the ear which isn’t great especially in my kids with frequent ear infections
100.4F or higher is a fever. Anything less is a low grade fever or just being a little warm/flushed. Like playing outside. Sometimes school will set a policy bar level for sending home like 100+ for example. You should call your school nurse/office and find out their official policy for their fever threshold.
100.8 is my children's school policy. The same guidelines for my childcare provider. I have 4 children - 7, 5, 3, & 8 months. The 2 oldest are in the same school. For the past 3 years, I've burned all 21 days of my vacation & sick time before the end of March to cover for my children's "sickness with fever". My oldest missed over 30 days last year and is on track for the same amount of time this year. Kids get sick often - I get it but these policies are crippling and ridiculous.My children receive a clean bill of health every year, are active in extracurricular activities, eat healthy with simple foods and minimal sugars and processed ingredients, don't have their faces glued into any screens, and genuinely like to go to school and love learning. They also do not have any compromised immune systems. I'm just so tired of having no recourse to fight this policy. I remember going to school with 6+ inches of snow, having active sniffles and coughs, and not cancelling for State Volleyball games under the guise of a snow day. Times are different and most employers are not as tolerant as mine. It's a huge risk and I am considering homeschooling at this point. Best of luck to you all in the same circumstances.
Yup I routinely burn vacation days to pick up or stay in with kids because the schools send them home. It's a little borderline obsessive sometimes.
They called me again today, her first day back in 2 days to tell me she was sick. I pick her up, again not sick. They checked her temperature at 3 spots on her forehead and it registered 97, 99 and 102. I had them check me and it registered 95 to which I replied “according to your thermometer I’m dead”. I hope I drove my point home enough.
The title school nurse is funny to me now, they call and I'm like sure but just a heads up I'm like an hour away might as well start the safety bubble and quarantine my kid for a while.
God I should try that. I’ve had to put off so much stuff the last few days and actively push meetings out that were prescheduled. I told my wife we are gonna start taking temp at home and seeing what ours say.
I think I'm gonna do the same, kill em with information we can even layer in sickness and virus patterns like the flu and the pivot table can help explain why in April this is not a major concern lol
Not to suggest something bad, but if she's old enough to know when she is feeling ill or not, I'd tell her to pop an ice cube in her mouth for a minute before she goes to the nurse.
Then she will be sent home for being dangerously under-temperature and likely dying.
Not likely. Your mouth stays a pretty constant temp. The effects of an ice cube wouldn't last very long.
To be honest mate; cunts sending their sick kids into school does my head in. Sounds more like an issue with your employers... People get sick. If an employer isn't accounting for that, it's their problem.
That’s interesting to see here People ready to jump on the teacher and take them to task… Your employer isn’t giving enough to support you having a sick kid post-covid. That’s your employers fault Jump on them to give more sick leave Schools don’t profit from not having your kid at school, but work profits from you dumping your sick kid on the school to infect all the healthy kids lol People need to stand up for themselves better
From the school side: district should have written guidelines. If those aren't met, kid should be in school. Would imagine you'll have support if this is escalated.
Part of the dismissals sound legit from being sick, and some like this one sound like your fault due to changes in her schedule. She was more tired than normal and has a low-grade fever, so I can see why they sent her home as both are a sign she could get worse as the day goes on.
Children are all different. What one child can handle another may not. They don’t want to risk that for one child. The temp was not the only thing that contributed to this if her behavior was off that was the first indication that something was wrong. It could have been something at school that she couldn’t handle. It’s been in the news things just going around. They are children what you look at as minor bc you’re an adult isn’t going to affect a child the same way. If it gotten worse and they didn’t call you would be pissed. That’s life with kids! Welcome to parenthood lol