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Health Office

Home > Student Life > Health Office

The goal of the school nurse is to help students stay in school and minimize absences whenever possible.

Student health is a team effort between students, parents/guardians and the health office. The nurse looks forward to caring for all our students’ healthcare needs both big and small. The nurse is at TA Monday-Thursday. Please don’t hesitate to call or email.

Resiliency

Students and parents/guardians recently science has shown that improving resiliency helps decrease anxiety and increases success in school. One helpful way to learn about resiliency is a helpful Australian app which provides a resiliency program for families, https://www.smilingmind.com.au/resilient-families-program. This app also includes tools to help students manage: anxiety, sleep issues, and helps with mindfulness.

Student Illness

What to do when your student is ill:

  • If your student is sick, please let the Main Office or School Nurse know what symptoms they are having when you call in. If your child has: a fever over 100.0 degrees, vomiting, headache, sore throat, nausea, diarrhea, significant congestion (that’s not allergies), communicable rash (scarlet fever, impetigo) they must stay home.
  • If there is a concern that a student might have Covid, please contact the School Nurse and follow the Covid exposure procedure outlined below.
  • If your child is ill or injured and not able to attend school, please contact the School Nurse.
  • Take home Covid test kits and N95 masks are available in the Health Office and TA’s Main Office.

Medications and Health Conditions

Prescription medications:

  • Must be kept in the Health Office.
  • Parents/guardians must get a current medication order to the School Nurse before medication can be given at school.
  • The student’s provider must send in permission (to the Health Office) to self-carry an inhaler or epi-pen.

Over-the-counter medications:

  • A student needs written parent/guardian approval to take over-the-counter medications at school; students can bring a written note or have parents email permission to the School Nurse.
  • Approved over-the-counter medications will be administered in the Health Office or in the Main Office (in the event that the School Nurse is unavailable).

Field Trips and Sports:

  • Parents please remember that you are responsible for making sure your student has their medication (rescue inhaler/epi-pen etc.) when going on a school-sponsored field trip or athletic event.
  • Students, please remember you are asked to get the medicine to your teacher or coach at the start of the field trip or game.

Covid Information for Families

When a student has Covid:

You can go back to your normal activities after at least one day (24 hours) if:

  • Your symptoms are getting better overall and
  • You have not had a fever for at least 24 hours (and are not using fever-reducing medicines).

After returning to normal activities, take extra prevention steps for the next 5 days. 

Any of these prevention steps can help limit the spread of respiratory viruses. The more steps you take, the lower your risk of getting others sick.

  • Practice good hygiene. Wash your hands often with soap and water or use hand sanitizer, cover your coughs and sneezes, and clean and disinfect surfaces as much as possible.
  • Keep physical distance with other people as much as possible.
  • Improve air quality. Take additional steps for cleaner air such as bringing in fresh outside air, using an air filter, or gathering outdoors.
  • Wear a mask. Look for a well-fitting, high-quality mask, or a disposable mask under a cloth mask.

When a student is exposed to Covid:

  • If they have fever, chills, fatigue, cough, runny nose, sore throat or headache consider testing for Covid.

Covid Testing:

  • In-school Covid testing and at-home Covid tests are available from the Health Office.
Gnaedinger, Ellen

Ellen Gnaedinger

School Nurse

802-785-4805 x226

Important Links

2023-2024 Health Card

Covid-19 Vaccine Clinics: Vermont Dept Health

Prescription Medication Order & Permission Form

Religious Immunization Exemption Form

Recent Health Office News

  • Ticks are out. Ticks, ticks, ticks Please check daily for deer ticks – especially outdoor classes and sports teams • There are lots of deer ticks. • Shower & wash clothes if you are out in tick territory. • If a deer tick is attached to you for more than 24-36......

    11 April, 2024

  • Happy Snow Day Illnesses • Pink eye cases are going away. We only had one case this week. Thank you for everyone’s help with hygiene and extra cleaning!!! • The good news is we don’t have many students sick with flu or viral sore throat this week. We’re very glad about that.......

    04 April, 2024

  • Guest post by Getting to Y team member Margaret Smallwood ’24 – TA students on the ‘Getting to Y’ team facilitated a Community Dialogue on March 21, with parents, peers, and siblings in attendance. Getting to Y is a leadership club focused on public health data, issues, and solutions. Team......

    28 March, 2024

  • Illnesses • We have several cases of PINK EYE or Conjunctivitis • We had 4 cases of viral pink eye & 6 cases of bacterial pink eye. Both are quite contagious. Viral pink eye can come from having a cold and then the virus moves to the eyes. It doesn’t need antibiotic......

    28 March, 2024

  • It’s nice to see the sun. Illnesses • We are seeing less students out with influenza symptoms this week. It is taking 3-6 days for students to feel well after getting the flu.  • Parents, please encourage your students to be in touch with their teachers to make a plan to make-up......

    21 March, 2024

  • It’s nice to see the sun. Illnesses • We still have several students out with influenza symptoms. Symptoms are headache, sore throat nausea, body aches and fever. If your child has a temperature over 100.0 they need to stay home, please. It is taking 3-6 days for students to feel......

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Excellence

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Commitment

We value initiative, courage and dedication. We take personal responsibility for the goals we set and work hard to achieve them.

Cooperation

We work and learn together. We see teachers as coaches, students as team members, families as partners, and learning as practice and action.

Caring

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Diversity

We respect differences among people. We welcome the contribution of varied perspectives to a rich and flexible school culture.