Health Office

Health Aide, Michelle VerStraten 480.279.8200

The Health office provides first aide and medical care primarily for illness or injuries that occur during the school day. It is not a primary care facility like a doctor’s office. The health aide is, however, qualified to collaborate with you and your child’s physician to provide an educational environment in which your child can learn and thrive. While the health aide does not make a medical diagnosis or prescribe medication or treatment, medication and treatment prescribed by a physician may be given in the health office.

Parents are required to complete an Emergency and Health History Form for each of their children every year. These forms contain vital information should your child become ill or injured at school. These forms need to be updated as changes occur during the school year. Students will be released to ONLY those persons indicated on the form. Photo ID is required to pick up any child during the day at school.

If a student feels ill during the school day, they should report their complaint to the classroom teacher for referral to the health office. Students are not to contact their parents directly via cell phone regarding illness unless prior arrangements have been made with the health aide. Please keep your child home if they have fever, diarrhea, vomiting, deep cough, or a potentially communicable disease. Students who have a fever of over 100 degrees, or signs and symptoms of a contagious condition must be picked up by a guardian or someone listed on the Emergency Contact list. Children with a fever of 100 degrees or more must be fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications before returning to school. If your child has been diagnosed with contagious illness, please contact the Health Office so parents of other students in the class may be notified. Please call your child’s doctor for advice on an ill child. Do not send ill students to school to be evaluated by the health aide.

Acetaminophen will be the only over-the-counter medication available in the Health office. This medication will be given at the discretion of the health aide and only if pre-authorization has been given by the parent/guardian (as indicated on medical yellow card). This medication will not be dispensed during the first and last hours of the school day.

Prescription medications, daily and PRN (as needed), must be in an original prescription container labeled for the student with a current date. The label must state directions that coincide with the request being made by the parent. The parent/guardian must check-in the medication to the health office.

Over-the-counter medications that are not stocked in the Health office and are needed by students during the school day must be checked in to the Health office by a parent/guardian. Requests for medications must be in agreement with the manufacturer’s directions or have a superseding physician’s order. Herbal preparations must have a doctor’s order. It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to pick up any unused or discontinued medications promptly from the health office. At the end of the school year, any medication remaining in the Health office will be discarded if not picked up.