Illness Exclusion & Medication: the full procedure

Define when to exclude a sick child, how to isolate and notify parents, return-to-care criteria, and how to administer medication only under written authorization with locked storage and a dosage log.

• Applies to: Director, lead teachers & designated medication-trained staff.
• Frequency: Every illness, every medication dose.
• Scope: Covers the operational process for handling sick children and medication requests. All exclusion thresholds, return-to-care decisions, and dosing defer to the child’s pediatrician, state child-care licensing, and the center’s written health & safety plan.

What you need

• Daily health-check log
• Illness-exclusion reference chart
• Medication authorization form
• Locked medication cabinet
• Medication dosage log

The procedure, step by step

1. Screen on arrival — Do a brief daily health check at drop-off and note any symptoms, behavior changes, or parent-reported illness before the child joins the group.
2. Apply the exclusion standard — When a child is too sick to participate comfortably or needs more care than staff can give without risking other children, follow the center’s exclusion chart and call the parent — never diagnose.
3. Isolate & supervise — Move the symptomatic child to a comfortable, supervised spot away from the group, kept with a familiar caregiver until pickup.
4. Notify the parent or authorized pickup — Contact the parent/guardian promptly, describe observed symptoms factually, and arrange sign-out by an authorized adult.
5. Document the illness — Record symptoms, time, who was notified, and the exclusion decision in the daily health log per licensing requirements.
6. Set return criteria — Readmit only when the child meets the center’s written return-to-care criteria (and any required provider note), deferring to the pediatrician and licensing rules.
7. Authorize before any dose — Accept medication only with the parent’s signed authorization (and provider instructions where required), in the original labeled container.
8. Store locked & log each dose — Keep all medication in a locked, child-inaccessible location away from food, and record every dose — name, drug, amount, time, staff initials — on the dosage log.

Quality check before you finish

• Daily health check completed and logged for every child.
• Exclusion chart and health plan posted and current.
• Symptomatic children isolated with familiar supervision until pickup.
• Every medication has a signed authorization on file.
• All medication in original labeled containers, locked, away from food.
• Every dose recorded on the dosage log with staff initials.
• Return-to-care decisions match written criteria.

This is a free, source-anchored standard operating procedure (SOP) you can print and hand to staff. It documents the work sequence for a Daycare Center business — not safety or regulatory rulings, which defer to the cited authorities, the applicable code, and your own health-and-safety plan. Open the tool above to print it, toggle ink-saver, or (with a free ToolFluency Business account) edit it to match your own workflow.

Sources

• Caring for Our Children / NRC — Std 3.6.1.1 Exclusion (childcareta.acf.hhs.gov)
• AAP HealthyChildren.org — When to Keep a Child Home (healthychildren.org)
• Caring for Our Children / NRC — Std 3.6.3 Medication (childcareta.acf.hhs.gov)