Short-Term Exclusion & Readmission (Sick Child) Policy Number and Last Update (03.02.02/01-2019) SUBPART D: Health Program Services §1302.47 (b)(7)(iii)
The purpose of this policy is to protect sick children and healthy children and to avoid misunderstandings between the center and Head Start parents. Center staff must exercise careful judgment so as not to expose all the children to a highly communicable disease nor burden working parents with the necessity of absence from their jobs.
The reasons for keeping a child home when he or she is sick are: the child's comfort and possibility of a secondary infection and the possibility of infecting other children. Parents should be sure children are feeling well before sending them to the center. Head Start will try to provide a clean, safe environment that keeps the spread of illness to a minimum.
Conditions warranting the child's exclusion from and readmission to the Head Start center are those cited in: Title 77, Section 690.100 of the Illinois Department of Public Health Code and Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Licensing Standards for Day Care Centers, Section 407.310 (c)(1)(2)(A-R)
The delegate Health Worker is charged with determining, by observation or measure, whether the child's condition meets any of the DCFS criteria for exclusion, and whether the child should be excluded.
[Each delegate should insert here its own procedure for how to carry out a child's exclusion, e.g. who will contact parents, provide transportation, etc.]
