Your Teen's Health & Wellness is Our Top Priority
To ensure the health and wellness of your child, parents play a vital role in working collaboratively with our school nurses. By initiating the process of notifying them of your child's health issues, our nurses can take the very best care of them while they are in school.
Below are several health issues, concerns, and situations your child may experience while they are at school and you, as their parents may need to reference.
ILLNESS & DISMISSAL
When your child is not feeling well during the school day, have them go to our school Nurses’ Office. We ask parents to please have a plan in place to pick up your child in case he/she needs to be dismissed from school. The school nurse will contact the family. If a family member is not available, the first person listed as an Emergency Contact in PowerSchool will be called. We will contact all names you listed on the Nurse Emergency Form and in PowerSchool until someone is reached. The nurse does not treat illnesses or accidents that have occurred outside our school campus.
Please keep in mind that your child can be ill and contagious without the presence of a fever. When in doubt, use this handy chart below and, by all means, keep your child at home. If your child has strep throat or another bacterial infection, they should stay home until the antibiotic has been given for a least 24 hours and your health care provider has permitted your child to return to school. We encourage you to seek medical attention when your child is sick and to follow your health care provider's recommendation about returning to school and taking part in other activities.
DIABETES
In order to best take care of our diabetic students, parents play a vital role in initiating the process of notifying the school nurses and making sure that everything your child may need is in the health suite. For this reason, we require that any student attending BVT, who is diabetic, must have all supplies and doctor's orders into our school nurse, where they will be stored for the first day of school.
Doctor's orders must include; daily insulin requirements, glucagon, hypoglycemia, and hyperglycemia care.
Supplies will include; insulin, glucagon, snacks, glucose tablets, glucometer, batteries, and supplies to change sites.
As a team, we may decide that your child does not need to see the nurse prior to lunch to check blood sugar levels. If however, your child is hypo/hyperglycemic OR if they are symptomatic, they still need to see the school nurse.
FOOD ALLERGIES
The key to the safety and well-being of food allergic children in school is developing a collaborative partnership among the school, families, and medical personnel to provide a safe and healthy learning environment. This starts with parents initiating the process and advising our school nurse of your child’s food allergy; providing them with your doctor’s order, and an epinephrine auto-injector (EpiPen) and/or other needed medication.
Did you know that we offers a nut-free table in the cafeteria during all student lunches? Parents, please be sensitive to the needs of children with food allergies. Do not send your child to school with any foods or snacks containing nut products. Teach your food allergic child responsible behavior in school by encouraging them not to trade foods with other students.
INJURIES
No matter what type of injury your child may have, cuts, scratches, bruises, or lacerations, our nurses’ office needs to be notified whether it occurred on campus or off. We work collaboratively with our athletic trainer, Molly Awiszus for student-athletes. If the injury requires a supportive brace, cast, use of crutches, a wheelchair, or a knee walker a doctor’s note is required and should state activity restrictions for both academics and shop. Please discuss with your doctor the activities your child may perform during shop (ex; lifting heavy objects, use of power tools, climbing ladders, standing for prolonged periods, etc.). The doctor’s note should also provide the date of any follow-up appointments. Depending on the injury, our Nurses’ Office will notify your child's teachers/instructors if they should use the elevator. Once recovered, a note from the doctor clearing your child from injury and returning to previous activity is required.
SURGERY
If your child requires hospitalization overnight or is having surgery our Nurses’ Office needs to be notified. Parents/Guardians should also contact their child’s school counselor so that they can help with any make-up work. When the student is cleared to return to school, the student’s counselor will schedule a “re-entry” meeting. Please bring all necessary paperwork to this meeting, including a doctor’s note stating any restrictions for both academics and shop as well as the date of any follow-up appointments.