Illness and Medication Policies

School nurses follow the Charles County Health Department’s guidelines for communicable diseases and illness. The school nurse will send a student home from school if they meet criteria provided by the local Health Department or if the student’s illness or injury does not allow the student to safely remain at school. Prior to returning to school from illness, students:

• Need to be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.
• Need to have no occurrences of vomiting or diarrhea within 24 hours.
• Have completed 24 hours on antibiotics for infections such as conjunctivitis or strep throat.

Every effort should be made to minimize the administration of medicine in schools. If at all possible, parents are urged to administer medication before school and/or after the child returns home. Medication refers to all drugs prescribed by a physician, as well as over-the-counter, nonprescription drugs (i.e., cold/cough preparations, analgesics-Tylenol/aspirin-lotions, cream, ointments-Calamine/Neosporin, antacids, etc.).

To ensure the safe, efficient administration of medications to students, who would otherwise be unable to attend school due to certain illnesses, conditions or diseases, the following procedure is followed. If the physician deems it necessary for a child to receive medication during the school day, parents must provide the school with the following:

• A completed Physician's Medication Order form containing complete written instructions from the prescribing physician, including the date of the order, identification of drug by name, dose, time and circumstances of administration, length of time medication is to be continued, reason for prescription and possible side effects; and
   
• A completed form from parents/guardians stating the desire to have medication administered and relieving the school, its agents, employees or representatives of any responsibility for ill effects resulting from the proper administration of the prescribed drug. An adult must deliver the medication to the school in the pharmacy container with all labeling information intact.

All medications must be transported to and from school by an adult. Students should receive 24 hours of antibiotics prior to returning to school in order to control the spread of infection. School nurses will not administer unlabeled medicines. Medications carried by students on school property without labeling information and the appropriate physician orders will be confiscated and parents will be contacted.

Physician's Medication Order forms are to be submitted at the beginning of each school year and renewed annually for students on long-term medication (i.e., Ritalin, asthma drugs, etc.), or therapy. These forms are available at each school, or you can click here to get to the forms page. These written instructions pertain to all medications (both over-the-counter and prescription). Parents/guardians need to pick up medications at the end of the school year or they will be discarded.

CCPS encourages parents to provide the school nurse with physician's orders and a three-day supply of critical medications routinely only given at home in case an emergency occurs that requires multi-day sheltering at school.