Influenza: When to Keep Your Student Home from School and How to Prevent the Spread of Flu


Influenza: When to Keep Your Student Home from School and How to Prevent the Spread of Flu

School Nurses are currently seeing students in the health room who are experiencing fever-related illnesses, including influenza or “the flu.”

To prevent the spread of the flu, please keep children home from school when they have a fever of 100.0 F or higher. They should remain at home for at least 24 hours after their temperature has returned to normal (98.6F) without the aid of fever-reducing medication, such as Children’s Tylenol or Advil.

Please do not send your student to school if fever-reducing medication has been administered at home before leaving for school. Parents/guardians will be contacted to pick up their student if they have returned to school less than 24 hours after experiencing a fever-related illness.

To prevent the flu, hands should be washed often with soap and water, or using hand sanitizer if soap and water are unavailable and avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth. If flu germs get on hands they can pass to other objects, such as doorknobs, cell phones and light switches and live on those objects for days. Anyone can catch the flu by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their nose, mouth or eyes. Flu germs also spread when people cough, sneeze or talk.

Common flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, feeling very tired, runny or stuffy nose, headache, and body aches. Some may have vomiting or diarrhea. This is more common in children.

For more information on influenza, please visit the King County Influenza information for schools webpage.


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