Illness and Keeping Kids Home

When to keep your child home, when they can come back, how we clean shared gear, and how we tell families about exposures without naming any child.

Keep your child home if they have:

a fever of 100.4°F or higher
vomiting or diarrhea
a cough, sore throat or other symptoms that keep them from taking part comfortably
any illness a doctor has said is contagious

Then let us know your child will be absent. See attendance and absences. There's no penalty for staying home sick.

When your child can come back

Illness	Return when
Fever or respiratory illness (cold, flu, COVID-19, RSV)	Fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medicine (such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen), and symptoms are getting better overall.
Vomiting or diarrhea	24 hours with no symptoms.
An illness diagnosed by a doctor	When the doctor says they can return to group activities.

This matches current CDC guidance for respiratory viruses. The CDC also suggests extra precautions for 5 days after returning to normal activities, such as good hand hygiene and keeping some distance. Your child is welcome to wear a mask in class, and no one will tease them for it.

If your child gets sick during class

Your child rests in a quiet spot in view of an adult. Two-adult rules still apply.
We call you to pick them up. If we can't reach you, we call your emergency contacts.
Pickup follows the normal rules: an authorized adult with photo ID, recorded in the sign-out log.

How we keep shared gear clean

Kids share controllers in stations of 4, and the class uses headphones. Our cleaning commitments:

Hands: everyone cleans their hands at the start of class and before Deck Time.
Headphones: ear cushions and headbands are wiped with disinfectant wipes between users. A child keeps the same pair for the whole class when possible. You're welcome to send your child's own wired headphones.
Controllers and laptops: jog wheels, buttons, knobs and keyboards are wiped down before and after every class, and between users when someone is sick or has sneezed or coughed on the gear.
Microphones (Mic, MC and Live Lab): the grille is wiped between users, and kids don't put mouths on the mic.
Earplugs are free, single-use, and never shared.

We use wipes labeled safe for electronics and follow the label directions.

How we tell families about exposures

If we learn that a child or adult in class has a contagious illness:

We'll email and text the families in that class to say what illness, when the possible exposure happened, and what symptoms to watch for.
We never name the child or adult, and we don't share details that would identify them. Please don't try to guess who it was.
If the Chicago Department of Public Health gives us direction, we follow it and pass it along.

If your child is diagnosed with something contagious after being in class, please tell Stephen Henry privately so we can let other families know (without names). Call 872-255-9333 or email stephen@selassiefest.com.

Sources

CDC, Preventing Spread of Respiratory Viruses When You're Sick: https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/prevention/precautions-when-sick.html