Health Services

The Marshalltown Community School District Nursing Staff are committed to supporting student success by providing a safe and healthy learning environment and working with the educational team to address health related barriers to learning. All schools in our district have a school nurse who can be a primary source of information in student health related matters.

School Immunization Requirements

Meningitis Vaccine Requirements

When to Keep Your Student Home

Students with the following symptoms should remain home or may be sent home from school:

Fever

The child’s temperature must remain below 100.4 degrees for 24 hours without benefit of use of fever reducing medications before they can return to school.

Vomiting

The child should be free of symptom for 24 hours before returning to school.

Diarrhea

The child should be free of symptom for 24 hours before returning to school.

Cold Symptoms

Persistent nasal congestion, reddened eyes, sore throat, cough or headaches that disrupt the student’s learning or pose a risk of disease transmission to others.

Rash

Unexplained skin eruptions or rashes. When in doubt, consult your child’s doctor before sending your child to school.

Communicable Disease

Communicable illnesses in which you have been advised to remain out of school until cleared to return by the county health department or your child’s doctor.

Other

Any other health condition that in the school nurses judgment is of concern for the others health and well-being and that of the child.

Stacey Tool-Crawford

High School Nurse

Email Stacey Tool-Crawford

The school nurse or other school staff will contact you if your child becomes ill or seriously injured at school. If a parent/guardian cannot be reached, other individuals listed on the emergency contact list will be contacted.  It is very important that you notify the school when there are changes to phone numbers and emergency contacts.

To minimize the spread of illness among students, report communicable diseases such as influenza, measles, whooping cough, hepatitis A, tuberculosis, chickenpox etc. to the school nurse immediately.

Returning to school after an illness

  • Students are to be fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication (such as Tylenol or ibuprofen)

  • No active vomiting or diarrhea for 24 hours

  • Other symptoms improving

  • COVID testing is not required to return to school

COVID-19 Updated Guidance 

The CDC and Iowa HHS have updated the recommendations for persons diagnosed with Covid-19.  Due to the Covid-19 vaccine and boosters widely available the guidelines have become less restrictive. Iowa HHS released an updated version of Childhood Illnesses and Exclusion Criteria for Education and Child Care Settings.   It now lists Influenza, COVID-19 and RSV under a new category entitled Respiratory Illness. The CDC also updated their Respiratory Virus Guidance.  

Children with respiratory illness, including Covid, are to remain home until they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications (Tylenol or Ibuprofen) AND other symptoms are mild and improving. It is no longer required to isolate for 5 days before returning.    

Please contact your school nurse if you have questions or concerns about illness and when your student may return to school.  Please see the COVID-19 fact sheet.

Learn more: Iowa Health and Human Services COVID-19 General Public Fact Sheet

2024-25 MCSD Communicable Disease Procedures

The parent/guardian will be called and the student will be sent home. Other symptoms that influence the decision to send the student home include general appearance and functioning in the classroom. After a period of observation a decision will be made to do one of the following:

  • Notify the parent/guardian for symptoms of illness, as determined by the school nurse. Not all student visits to the health office will result in parents/guardians being contacted.

  • Allow the student to rest in the health office for a brief period then return to class.

During times of high rates of illness, such as during influenza season, the length of time a student must remain home after fever/symptoms of illness may change as recommended by Marshall County Public Health.

COVID-19 variants are still circulating in the world and in our community, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Variants have not been shown to cause more serious illness or deaths, mainly due to protective factors such as COVID vaccinations. New treatments for COVID, and vaccines, have dramatically decreased the numbers of people who get seriously ill.