48 hour D&V rule

[Darkbaptism]

AIBU to have assumed secondary schools follow the 48 hour sickness rule?

My DS is immune suppressed and due to start secondary school in September. I recently discovered the the school I’m planning to send him to doesn’t follow the rule which is a worry as he is susceptible to sickness and can become very unwell very quickly.

I have asked around and it seems to be common in my area. Do any secondary schools still follow this recommendation?
I feel like attendance figures are more important than the overall health of the students.

I found out this week our local ones are 24hrs not 48, yet one sends children home re nits and won't let them back until cleared! Madness!

JoyceDivision 24 hours is better than the nothing we have here! That’s crazy re nits but I bet it’s effective at stopping multiple infestations.

Do they not have a policy at all? Hoping this link will work, but here is the Public Health England guidelines.
You should arrange a meeting with the head to discuss why they are not following the guidelines, and how they propose to protect your child.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/691091/Exclusionn_table.pdf

A lot of schools and work places are moving to a 24 hour rule but it would surprise me if they did away with it altogether. Even if you’re not immunocompromised a sickness bug can incapacitate your workforce quickly if you don’t have effective infection control measures.

Even with a rule in place you'll find a whole load of parents ignore it

I’m a secondary school teacher and we technically have a 24 hour rule, but it’s not strictly enforced.

I.e. if someone is sent home for vomiting but feel better the next and come in we wouldn’t send them home again.

I think that at secondary school, these sort of things don’t spread as quickly as at primary schools - the children are no longer ‘playing’, and getting in as close contact with each other as they would in a primary school playground.

Ferrier that drives me bonkers. A friend of mine has loads of form for sneaking her child back in to school / nursery when their last episode was the evening before or even in the middle of the night . Sometimes it's clear that vomiting is not bug related (looking at your chocolate smeared face, dd!) but otherwise it's just bloody selfish.

It definitely seems wrong not to enforce the 48hr rule, and I’d consider questioning that with Public Health. There’s a misconception that 48 hours = 2 days as well, and it isn’t. If your last episode is Monday night, then you are clear 48 hours later on Wednesday night, and shouldn’t be back at work/school until Thursday (assuming normal school hours or 9-5 job).

I work in a 6th form college and we have a 48 hour rule, but who knows if it's enforced? We're also hot on attendance so 2 missed days and a letter will probably get sent home....

I think it’s probably a fact of life that most places don’t strictly enforce that rule. Workplaces, doctors offices etc. Most adults and teens should be able to judge if they’ve been sick because of illness and not something else. Trying to enforce a 48 hour rule for vomit would be unworkable.

Not that I don’t sympathise with your situation.

My DS school don't even send kids home if they are vomiting, the new head is so obsessed with increasing attendance she is sending staff & attendance officers out to pupils homes no matter what is wrong to harass pupils back to school. She doesn't appreciate mental health issues & insists that sufferers should be in school even though there is no extra support for them.

One of our local secondary schools has a 24 hour policy for vomitting nothing for diarrhoea, other school has no policy and discourages absence.

No exclusion at all here. My son was sick at 5 am and school were cross he wasn’t in at 8!

I think this would be too difficult to police in a secondary school, plus by the time a child is actually sick they may well have already been in contact with and infected multiple children just by being in school, so I’m not sure how much effect this rule would have for your child anyway I’m afraid

48 hours after last bout of illness here. However if you don't declare it as such when ringing in I don't see how they can enforce it.