We work to prevent the spread of communicable diseases by practicing careful sanitation. Children and staff wash hands upon entering the classroom, before and after toileting and before meals. Toys are washed regularly, and bedding is sent home to laundered once a week. Each child uses only his or her own mat and bedding. Staff take First Aid and CPR training every three years, and stay aware of possible safety hazards in the environment. We routinely cover sanitary hygiene practices and safety rules as part of out curriculum.

A day at Indianola Children's Center is easy and fun for a child in good health, but exceedingly demanding for one who is not feeling well. Sick children need the one-on-one care and unlimited rest and fluids that they can get at home. Bringing a sick child to school exposes him/her to other secondary illnesses and exposes the staff and other children to illness. Bringing a child back to school before all symptoms have subsided risks a relapse and further delays recovery. (Doctors recommend that children who have had a fever stay home one full day after the fever subsides).

Families whose work schedules do not allow them to stay at home with a sick child need to plan ahead for the inevitable day when their child will be excluded from care. If you do not have a friend or relative who can care for your child in the event of illness, you should pre-register for one of the services that can care for sick children. The office can give you more information on these services.

Ohio issues the following guidelines on keeping children home, which ICC adheres to. Children who show signs of illness as follows should not be brought to the center. We do not have sufficient staff to keep a child indoors.
If a child is well enough to come to the Center, they should be well enough to play outside.

Keep me home if:
1. I'm vomiting, one or more times in 24 hours.
2. I have a rash, lice, or nits.
3. I have diarrhea, two or more watery stools in 24 hours.
4. I have an eye infection, thick mucus or pus draining from the eye.
5. I have a sore throat, with fever or swollen glands.
6. I'm just not feeling very good, unusually tired, pale, lack of appetite, confused, or cranky.
7. I have a fever, of 100° (F) or more (taken under the arm).

If your child should display signs of illness while at ICC, you will be notified to come and pick up the child as soon as possible. The child will be isolated in the office until you arrive, to prevent the spreading of the illness. Please notify us if our child is diagnosed as having a communicable disease such as chicken pox, measles, scarlet fever, hepatitis, herpes, infectious diarrhea, or any other disease or parasite, so that we may notify other families. A “Parent Notification of Exposure” will then be posed on the doors of the classroom effected so other families are aware. Your child's name will not be mentioned on this note, or told to any other families.

Children with communicable diseases such as impetigo will not be admitted until we have received a statement or phone call from the doctor indicating that the child has been treated for at least 24 hours.

Children with head lice will not be readmitted until the child has been treated with an approved medication and is free of all nits.