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NIST Child Care Center

Illness

Keeping our Center a healthy place requires your cooperation, understanding, and compliance with our health standards. Children should be excluded when they are not able to fully participate with the program, or in the case of our child care settings, when their level of care needed during an illness is not able to be met without jeopardizing the health and safety of the other children, or when there is a risk of spread to other children that cannot be avoided with appropriate environmental or individual management. We are not equipped to care for children who are not well, nor do we have extra staff to stay for long periods of time with children who are not well enough to participate in regular school activities. In other words, if the child is healthy enough to come to school, they will be expected to participate fully. For this reason, the NIST Child Care Center must take a firm position in regard to the health of each child (as well as staff members) who attend the NIST Child Care Center. With this in mind, please read and follow our policy on health and help us keep your child, and the other children, healthy.

Each child is required by Maryland regulations to have an up-to-date physical examination prior to entrance. Immunizations must be up-to-date. A lead screening is also required for all children and/or a lead blood test for children who have lived, or currently live in certain Maryland zip codes. Please consult your child's physician.
CHILDREN WHO ARE SICK MUST NOT TO BE BROUGHT TO THE CENTER. Children who exhibit symptoms of illness upon arrival, will not be allowed to attend the Center that day. The symptoms of illness for which State regulations require that a child be excluded from the Center include the following:
- Fever (100.4 orally or the underarm equivalent) (Note: A child may have a fever for many reasons. Any child with a fever and behavior changes, or other symptoms of an acute illness, will be excluded and parents notified.)
- Vomiting (two or more episodes in a 24-hour period)
- Respiratory distress (asthma that may severely restrict the child's activities, severe cold, chest congestion)
- Suspected ringworm, pink eye, conjunctivitis
- Head lice, scabies
- Rashes, skin infections
- Diarrhea (Note: A child with loose or watery stools of increased frequency that is not associated by change in diet will be excluded if stool is not able to be contained in a diaper or in the toilet, the stool contains blood, if the child is ill, or has any signs of acute illness accompanied by fever or shows signs of dehydration.)
- Severe pain or discomfort
- Swollen joints
- Sore throat or deep coughs
- Other obvious complaints or not feeling well such as extreme tiredness or lethargy, headaches, stiff neck, etc.
Listed below is a chart of communicable diseases and the requirements for exclusion from the Center. The exclusions are REQUIRED by the Montgomery County Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Center allows NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. If your child is diagnosed as having any of the following diseases, he or she cannot return to the Center for the amount of time and/or requirement listed after each disease.

DISEASE	REQUIRED EXCLUSION
Animal bites	Until medically cleared for return
Chicken pox	Until lesions are completely dried and crusted
Conjunctivitis (infectious pink eye)	Until medically cleared or 24 hours of antibiotic therapy
Diphtheria	Until cleared by Health Department
Haemophilus Influenzae (HIB)	24 hours of antibiotic therapy
Hepatitis A	At least 1 week and physician advises return
Impetigo Contagiosa	24 hours of antibiotic therapy
Lice, Body (Pediculosis corporis)	24 hours after treatment
Lice, Head (Pediculosis capitits)	After first treatment completed
Measles (Rubeola)	4 days after onset of symptoms
Meningitis (Viral or Aseptic)	Until physician advises return
Meningitis (Bacterial)	Until physician advises return
Meningococcal Disease	Until physician advises return
Mumps	5 days of antibiotic therapy
Pertussis (Whooping Cough)	5 days of antibiotic therapy
Poliomyelitis	Until cleared by Health Department
Ringworm of scalp	Until treatment has been initiated
Rubella (German measles)	7 days after onset of symptoms
Salmonellosis	5 days after onset of symptoms
Scabies	Until treatment has been initiated
Shingles	Until lesions are completely dry and crusted
Streptococcal Disease (Strep Throat/Scarlet Fever)	24 hours of antibiotic therapy
Tuberculosis	Until treatment has been initiated and cleared by Health Department
Typhoid Fever	Until cleared by Health Department

If your child has been exposed to or diagnosed as having a communicable disease, you must notify the Center immediately. A doctor's medical release must be presented before a child with a communicable disease can return to the Center. It is also important that you let us know if your child has head lice so that we may ensure proper cleaning of the affected classroom and its contents.
A child sent home with a fever MUST NOT RETURN UNTIL THE TEMPERATURE HAS BEEN NORMAL (under 100.4 orally or the underarm equivalent) FOR 24 HOURS, and/or the other symptoms have subsided.
If your child has any type of allergy, it must be reported to the staff and recorded in the child's records.

You will be notified and expected to pick up your child within the hour if, during the day, he/she begins to show any of the above symptoms. Meanwhile, the child may be isolated from the other children to help prevent further spread of any illness as well as to make the child more comfortable.

Repeated noncompliance with the Center's health guidelines and procedures may precipitate the child's termination at the Center.