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Article How Can I Tell If My Child Is Too Sick To Go To School?

Liz Sturgiss, Bond University
March 31, 2025

20 Comment

As a GP and mum to two boys I have many experiences of trying to navigate the school morning when my boys aren’t feeling well. It always seems to happen on the busiest days.

None of us want to send our child to school when they are not well – I hate the thought of my kids feeling sick in the classroom and also the idea they might make other children sick.

Lots of families have someone for whom illnesses are more dangerous. They might have a weakened immune system because they are going through cancer treatment or suffer from another illness.

But it can be hard to tell. A child might be dramatically crying “my tummy HURTS” one minute and racing around with their sibling the next. Or you might wonder if they are angling for some time off in front of the TV.

How can you tell if your child is too sick to go to school?

Symptoms to look out for

In school-aged children here are some symptoms to consider.

Fever: if your child feels hot to touch, or you have a thermometer showing a fever (a temperature above 38 degrees), then they shouldn’t attend school.

This is even if you are giving them regular paracetamol or ibuprofen to keep their temperature down. Your child won’t feel comfortable at school with a fever and they have a high chance of making others unwell.

Vomiting and diarrhoea: children should stay home until it is at least 24 hours since their last vomit or runny poo. This is to reduce the spread of viral gastroenteritis (or stomach flu) and to make sure your child can stay hydrated and well. If your child is vomiting or has diarrhoea, it also is important to keep a close eye on them to make sure they are improving and to seek medical care if they are getting worse.

Runny noses: a runny nose without a fever might be a sign of hayfever, especially if your child has other symptoms like itchy eyes or sneezing. On its own, this is not a reason to stay home.

But a new runny nose with a fever is a reason to stay home. Many infections, including influenza, COVID and even measles can start with a fever and runny nose, although usually it signals a common cold.

The common cold needs rest, fluids and encouraging your child to keep their nose clear with gentle blowing or saline sprays. And a reminder, the annual flu vaccine is an excellent way to protect your family from the serious consequences of the “proper flu”.

Cough: there are many different reasons for a child to cough. This includes infections such as COVID, whooping cough and influenza and non-infectious reasons such as hayfever and reflux. If your child has developed a new cough, and especially if they are also feverish, this is a reason to keep them at home. A cough that doesn’t go away after two weeks should also be checked out by your GP.

Tiredness: mostly on Fridays, my kids are tired after a busy week – much like me! Tiredness can be an early sign of a lurking infection or some other health issue. But on its own is probably not a reason to keep your child home. However, ongoing tiredness is a good reason to have your child checked out by your GP as there are many causes from poor sleep to iron deficiency.

Poor appetite: kids’ appetites can vary so wildly, especially when they move into growing phases. Not wanting to eat breakfast in the morning might be an early gastro infection, a sign of constipation or nervous butterflies for the day ahead. If your child is otherwise OK, with no tummy pain, fever or tiredness, then a lack of appetite for breakfast is not a solid reason to stay home.

Watch out for school refusal

I find it helpful to let my child know if they stay home, they will need to stay in bed with no screens to rest and get well. This tends to separate the “truly feeling unwell” days from the “just hoping to have a rest” days.

But feeling unwell in the morning – particularly in the tummy, tiredness or unexplained headaches – can be an early sign something might not be going smoothly for your child at school or home.

School refusal is a serious problem where a child is completely overwhelmed and unable to attend school. It can come on gradually or suddenly. Talking with your child’s school is a critical first step if you are concerned about school refusal – it should be a conversation that happens promptly and your school should have procedures for helping you to manage it.

Phone a friend

If you’re not sure, consider giving a trusted friends or family member a quick call to talk things over.

You can also contact Healthdirect on 1800 022 222 (or 13 Health if you are in Queensland). This is a national phone service open 24 hours for anyone who has symptoms and needs advice on what to do next.The Conversation

Liz Sturgiss, Professor of Community Medicine and Clinical Education, Bond University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Comments

  • It’s definitely a tough one. I have had my kids fake it before, so it is definitely an issue. I also come from a home where you had to be almost dying before you would stay home from school. Just having a cold was not enough to keep you home and I must say I am along the same vein. I don’t like my kids missing too much.

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  • I wish I’d known a lot of these helpful tips when my boys were little. I would take my boys to school, go up town to check the mail and when I got back home my youngest would be there. In the end, I had to take him just as the bell rung so he’d stay there. He wouldn’t eat his lunch, he’d just throw it in the bin even though he told me what he wanted. This kept happening all through year 1. When he started year 2, I spoke to his new teacher and explained everything. Told him I’d just bring him back as soon as the siren went. This teacher went above and beyond as far as I’m concerned. He said he wanted to talk to him alone first. My son was then always the first at school and the last to leave. I asked the teacher how he managed when no other teacher could. What he said will always stay with me. He told my son as he was only new himself, he needed someone he could trust to guide him through the day so he had him sit at the front of the classroom so he could judge if he was doing the right thing for the class. My son would just give him a little nod or smile. That was all it took and my son was a totally different child from that day forward.

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  • I always worry as a parent if i am doing the right thing but if my daughter feels ok and doesn’t have a temp, I tend to send her to school as i agree sometimes a runny nose can mean hayfever in some cases and it is something we do suffer from in our house.

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  • As a parent, im always looking out for signs. Especially things like a temperature. It isnt worth her feeling unwell and not being able to get through the day, causing others to get sick. Definitely keeping my kids at home whenever they have these sorts of symptoms, their body is just exhausted

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  • We all know our children best and just their mood can usually show us they are not well. It can be hard to tell if it is bad enough to stay home though and this is the issue. It might not be that bad in the morning but by lunch time it has hit.

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  • If your child has a fever you should never send them to school. I think if they have a slight runny nose and no other symptoms then it is ok but anything else you should do the right thing and keep your child at home so the germs don’t spread around.

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  • A fever is always a reason to keep your kids home and resting, taking them to school is just asking for an entire classroom of sick kids. No screen time is definitely a good idea, at least for the first half of the day. We all had the days we fibbed sickness to stay home and play (Sims 2 for me haha)

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  • This is the best advice I have seen on how to work out if your child is sick or just pulling the wool over your eyes so they can stay home to play with their screens. Very hard to implement a ‘no-screen’ day and staying in bed the whole day if there isn’t another adult at home too. Thanks for your post.

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  • Nothing worse than getting sick because of someone else’s poor decisions. It’s like a domino effect and causes so much disruption to families.

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  • If my child is unwell i do not send her to school. I do think there is a fine line between understanding if they are actually sick or just don’t want to go to school. I hate when parents send their kids to school when they are unwell as the entire class then catches the bug that is going around. Thankfully most teachers are on to it these days and send kids home when they aren’t well but this stops them from teaching.

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  • When my boys were young, if they said they felt sick in the morning I’d allow them to stay home in bed. I stressed to them emphatically that if they felt well enough to watch the tv or get on the computer then they would be going to school even if it was after lunch. Thankfully they’re well and truly passed that and now have kids of their own.

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  • I work with special needs children and this has to be my biggest frustration with parents is that they send their children to school when they are sick. One parent is a GP and yet she sends her child with a green runny nose and a chesty crackling cough. They then get the call that they have to come and get him but in the mean time other kids and staff have been exposed.

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  • I like the idea about telling them they can’t have screens – I’ve done that too, though the problem is my kids really like books, so it doesn’t necessarily work on them! Still, if they’re sick enough to stay home, then they’re sick enough for a very quiet day with no junk food.

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  • Being sick at work or at school is always horrible and no one wants be sick in any of these environments. It is so very important to stay home and recover from illness. It is important for the health of individuals and families and to not infect those that are immunocompromised.

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  • This is a really good, informative article. It can be so hard to tell sometimes and some kids are amazing at faking it. When I was a kid if we just had a cold, my mum would send us anyway. These days you have to be careful. If mine have mild symptoms though, I do usually still send them.

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  • Really good advices. It’s really hard to know what to do in this situation as we don’t want our child to miss school but we also don’t want them suffering while they are far from.us.

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  • Some great advice here on what to monitor and look out for. I always go by their temperature as a first sign to see how they are and how their night/sleep was prior to that. Sometimes a day of rest can really be a really great way to help them feel better

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  • I find that one good measure is “would I want to be near them if they weren’t my child”. If they’re grotty and snotty and coughing and spluttering and I would edge away from them if they weren’t mine…. Then I really shouldn’t be sending them to school. It helps me focus.

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  • Just make them go if they can walk and talk they can go .Make them strong just like we don’t get a day off they can’t either

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  • My kids all like school and rarely get sick so if one of them says they’re unwell ill generally keep them home. If they have a temperature I keep them home even if they try and say they’re well enough to go. Its not fair to make other kids unwell. 🙂

    Reply
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