Our school nurses want to encourage you to make healthy decisions for your child and our schools. One of the best ways to help is by keeping your children (or yourself!) home during illnesses. Children who are ill should be kept home regardless of symptom severity, including cold or flu-type illnesses.

Please do not send your child to school when they are sick.

COVID-19 continues to be prevalent in our community, and our school nurses observe COVID and non-COVID illnesses in students arriving at school. Remember, illness is not solely determined by temperature and may present as a variety of symptoms, including congestion, cough, sniffles, and sore throats.

MLSD is required to adhere to WA State DOH COVID guidelines. This means that if your student has ONE or MORE of the following symptoms, please keep them home and test for COVID-19:  

• Fever/chills (≥100.4℉) 
• Shortness of breath/breathing difficulty 
• Body aches 
• A new loss of taste/smell
• Cough 
• Nausea/vomiting/diarrhea 
• Fatigue
• Sore throat 
• Congestion/runny nose  

If your student’s test is negative, please keep them home until symptoms have drastically improved or are gone/there has been no fever for the past 24 hours without fever-reducing medication.

If your student’s test is positive, plan to keep them home for at least five days following the onset of symptoms and contact your school nurse for specifics/details.

It's up to all of us to keep our schools healthy and safe for students and staff. As always, you may contact your school nurse if you have questions. Thank you for helping us to keep our schools healthy!

Students and staff must stay home when they are not feeling well and stay home until they feel better.

Please stay home if you have any of these symptoms:

24-HOUR RULE

Returning to school too soon may slow recovery and make others sick. If your student has a FEVER, please stay home until the fever has been gone without medication for 24 hours. Students who are VOMITING or experiencing DIARRHEA should remain home for 24 hours following the last time the student vomited or had diarrhea.

If your child has been sent home with any of these symptoms, we expect them to be absent the next day.

ONCE YOU FEEL BETTER

You may return once you are 24 hours fever, vomit, and diarrhea-free (without medication) and all other symptoms are significantly improved. 

What to do if you have COVID symptoms