When to keep sick children away from school: what Hong Kong parents and doctors say

Parents often have to make a judgment call about whether a kid is sick enough to be kept at home. A paediatrician explains the factors to weigh up, including whether they’ll infect classmates and teachers

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Understanding whether a child is ill enough to be kept from school is often up to parents.

Sunory Dutt

Published: 6:00am, 14 Feb 2017Updated: 11:00am, 14 Feb 2017

Some parents aren’t sure when to keep sick children away from school and when it’s OK to send them back.

While many schools in Hong Kong make it easy for parents to decide, with clear-cut rules on illness, a US-wide poll by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital found parents differ on how sick is too sick for class, or the importance of sick day consequences such as missing work or children missing tests.

The findings were based on responses from 1,442 parents who had at least one child between the ages of six and 18.

No school today for this youngster with a head cold.

Those with children aged between six and nine most frequently considered health issues as a key concern when opting for a sick day, while two in five parents of high schoolers rated missing tests or falling behind in class work equally.

Symptoms also make a difference. According to the poll, 80 per cent of parents would keep home a child with diarrhoea, just 58 per cent a child with vomiting, and 49 per cent a child with a slight fever but still acting normally. Most parents say they are likely to send a child with red, watery eyes but no fever (16 per cent) to school, or one with a runny nose, dry cough and no fever (12 per cent).