Joining the "My asthmatic kid coughed at school and now I have to try to get a test" club

[YreneTowers]

My son got sent home from school after apparently coughing "a lot", and now can't go back until he's had a negative test.

He's asthmatic - he does cough, especially in hot weather when he's been doing PE. This is not a new thing.

Now he's home, he hasn't coughed once!

School doesn't care. They won't allow him back without a negative COVID test result, and the rest of us are supposed to be self-isolating, too.

I can't get one - obviously, and I'm not convinced he needs one.

AIBU to think the school is being over-cautious?

We were worried about this with nursery as DD is 2 and asthmatic. She has her typical asthma cough whenever she gets any kind of infection and then it typically lasts anywhere between 1-4 weeks before it's back under control again. And then over the winter months she gets ill most months anyway so will cough most of the way through winter. (And sometimes in summer too when her hay fever sets off!) We've spoken to nursery about it and they know her and her cough etc and they told us not to worry and unless it was really noticeably worse or different or she had another symptom like a temp etc they would just treat it as asthma exacerbation and wouldn't exclude her.

Grrrr! Thought I'd managed to book a test.

After about 4 hours of refreshing the website, I managed to get on there, answered all the questions, clicked through all the "ONLY BOOK A TEST IF YOU HAVE SYMPTOMS!" warnings (oops), picked a test site, picked a time slot, entered my car reg, and hit 'save'.

An hour later, no confirmation email has arrived.

It's not booked, is it?

No you need the QR code. No code, no test. It gets emailed to you. It's very frustrating.

Bollocks.

Although DS1 is not too disheartened at the thought of a week off school, especially when compared to a huge Q-Tip being shoved up his nose, and DS2 is thrilled at 2 weeks off school (but he doesn't know about the home learning his school has set up)

Ordered a home testing kit. That's going to fun. He's 11, so young enough to need a parent to administer it, but strong enough to resist if he doesn't want it!

My daughter came back with a cold on Friday. Her teacher had been off the week before with a negative test. She then started coughing and temp of 38. Luckily got a test today (or they wouldn't have let her in next week). I wondering about the results.
She's not been anywhere apart from school. DD2 has just started sneezing.
Suddenly normal September coughs and colds are a thing of the past. The kids have been cooped up for 6 months and many (like mine) haven't had any social interaction for months outside of home. DD2 also has asthma so I guess she'll be next!