Health Services
Parents should call our Attendance Hotline, (203)245-6404, by 8:30 am to report their child's absence or tardiness. Please indicate a reason for your child's absence.
General Information
The Health Office is staffed with a Registered Nurse from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The Health Office provides health and emergency services to students at Brown School. If an emergency should arise while the Health Office is closed, students will be sent to the Main Office. All Health Office visits are documented and these records are maintained in the child’s cumulative health record.
Parents/guardians will be notified if their child is to be sent home. A student with a temperature 100 degrees or greater, or who is vomiting or has diarrhea, will be sent home from school. Individual assessments may also result in exclusion from school.
Additional Guidelines
- At the beginning of the school year, the Health Office will request that each parent or guardian complete an emergency information form. Please list all available numbers where you can be reached (home, work, beeper, cell phones) and local persons to contact if you are not available. Please update all changes during the school year.
- The Physical Education department requires that a parent write a note of explanation if his/her child is unable to participate in a class, due to illness or injury. If more than two classes are missed, a note from the treating health care provider is needed to excuse the student.
- To ensure safety, students returning to school with any limitation of mobility (crutches, casts, wheelchairs or sutures) must first report to the Health Office before attending any classes and provide a doctor's note.
- Any products containing latex are not permitted in the building.
- Parents should contact the school nurse before their child returns to school after surgery, serious illness, injury, or hospitalizations. A note from the treating health care provider is needed before the student returns so that the nurse can make a plan for the child’s safety.
- The school nurse will make recommendations to the school administration regarding students with health problems participating in field trips.
Screenings
The State of Connecticut and Madison Board of Education requires that students in grades four and five have vision and hearing screenings. Grade 4 and 5 students will have these screenings performed at school by the school nurse during the fall. Gr. 5 girls are also required to have scoliosis screening, which will be performed at school by the school nurse around the end of January or in February.
Medication Administration
- The State of Connecticut has created definitive regulations regarding administration of medication in schools. Medications (prescription or over-the-counter) are NOT to be carried on the student’s person or kept in lockers. If it is necessary for a student to take any medication during school hours, it must be administered by the school nurse, school administrator, or a designated teacher. The following steps will facilitate the procedure and meet state regulations:
- A medication authorization form signed by the prescribing health care provider and the parent/ guardian must be submitted annually. These forms are available from the Health Office, the health care provider, or the Madison Public Schools website.
- The parent/guardian must deliver the medication directly to the school nurse.
- The medication container must be labeled by the pharmacy with the name of the patient, medication name, strength, dosage and frequency, and the name of the prescriber. Over-the-counter medication must be received in its original unopened container from the store.
- The amount of medication is limited to a 3 month supply.
- A student may be allowed to self-administer an inhaler or medication for anaphylaxis with approval of the School Nurse, Principal, parent and prescribing health care provider. The child may carry his/her own inhaler or EpiPen and parents will need to provide an additional supply of these meds for the Health Office.
The medical advisor for the Madison Public Schools has approved the following medications and preparations for use in the Health Office.
Emergency Medications
- EpiPen: Anaphylactic shock
- Benadryl: for hives, allergic reaction, or motion sickness
- Over the counter preparations
- Acetaminophen: for general pain/discomfort, headache, dysmenorrhea, dental pain or temperature greater than 101°
- Bacitracin: topical application for minor abrasions and lacerations
- Calagel: topical application for itching
- Bactine: topical application to clean wounds
- Petroleum jelly/Medicated lip ointment:: chapped lips
- Sunscreen: topical application