Fort Plain Central School District > District Services > Health Services

Health Services

On this page you will find helpful information about Fort Plain Central School District’s Health Services. This includes:

District health services

District health services support student academic success by promoting health in the school setting. Each of the district’s schools has its own health office with a full-time nurse to serve student health needs.

District health services provide:

  • Vision, hearing and scoliosis screenings;
  • First aid for accidents and illness;
  • Immunization record maintenance for all students;
  • Clearance for interscholastic sports participation (middle and high school); and
  • Medication administration.

Forms and resources

Health Concerns

If you have concerns regarding your child’s health, please contact the nurse’s office at the beginning of the school year or when the health concerns arise.

Health screenings

All new students and students entering grades Pre-K or K, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 are required by law to present a copy of a current physical (done within the past 12 months) to the school nurse within 30 days of their first day of school. Download the health certificate/appraisal form for the doctor to fill out.

School-based health screening

District health services will provide physicals for students who do not have a physician when entering these grades and for students wishing to play sports or acquire working papers.

Health physicals and screenings performed by school personnel provide a baseline measure of a student’s health and wellness. These evaluations are not equal in scope to those performed at a doctor’s office, hospital or clinic.

Accessing affordable health and dental services

Families who are new to the area, who cannot afford a private physician for health care or need help accessing affordable dental services should contact their children’s school nurse’s office for assistance locating local providers.

Illness and school attendance

Regular school attendance is key to our students’ success. However, there are times when students who are unwell will benefit from staying at home to rest and recover. This also helps prevent the spread of colds, influenza (flu) and other contagious diseases.

If your child develops a fever, vomiting or diarrhea, please do not send them to school. Students should be free of fever, vomiting or diarrhea for at least 24 hours before returning to school. This guideline means the symptoms are resolved without using over-the-counter medications (Tylenol or Ibuprofen) to suppress them.

Please call your child’s school by 8 a.m. to report an absence due to illness.

Children should bring a note to their teacher when they return to school explaining the reason for their absence.

Guidelines to follow about illness and when children may attend school:

Children may not attend school with the following:

  • Fever of 100 or higher in the morning.
  • Vomiting or diarrhea in the last 24 hours.
  • Symptoms of pink eye – itching, drainage, crusty eyes and red color in eye.
  • Rash with fever.
  • Sore throat with fever.

Children may attend school with the following. Parents are the best judge of determining if their children are healthy enough to meet the demands of a school day with these symptoms:

  • Chronic runny nose.
  • Lingering cough.
  • Mild headache.
  • Muscle aches.
  • Sore throat without fever.

Children can attend school with the following:

  • Muscle aches.
  • Mild headache.
  • Stomach ache without other symptoms.
  • Allergy symptoms.
  • Asthma (controlled).

Illness at school

Students who get sick during the school day need to report to the school nurse before calling or texting a parent to come get them or leaving school on their own. Any student leaving school because of illness must be released by the school nurse.

When a student arrives in the nurse’s office, the school nurse will assess the student’s presenting complaint(s) and contact parent(s) if necessary. For young children, often a short rest, Kleenex and kindness remedy minor complaints and concerns. If a child demonstrates any unusual physical symptoms or shows a pattern of self-referral to the nurse’s office with repeating complaints, the school nurse will contact the child’s parent(s).

Injury at school

When a student is injured at school, the school nurse assesses immediate medical needs, and responds accordingly. Parents are contacted, and an appropriate level of medical assistance is secured.

If your child is injured at school and requires medical treatment, the district insurance provides coverage of those costs. Insurance forms are available through the school nurse’s office. Parents should note that if you have private insurance, school district insurance is applicable only after your insurer has paid its maximum benefit.

Medications at school

If a child need to take medication in school, even over-the-counter medication like Tylenol or Advil, their parent(s) must have the child’s health care provider complete the medication authorization form and return the completed form to the school nurse. Medications cannot be administered at school until this form is on file. Per New York state regulations, all medications — prescription and over-the-counter — that are taken at school must be administered by the school nurse.

Students may not have any medication (topical, prescription or other over-the-counter.)  Medications may be carried by students who have written permission from their physicians and parents, along with the approval of the school nurse.

Parents who wish their children to have routine access to pain relievers or other over-the-counter medications must provide the school with written permission and a doctor’s standing order. These authorizations must be renewed annually.

All medications — topical, prescription and over-the-counter — must be supplied by parents in the original container. Parents should deliver medications to the nurse’s office. The child’s name should be visible and readable on the container.

Sports physicals

To play on one of Fort Plain’s interscholastic athletic teams, or even practice with a team, students must — by law — have a sports physical on file with the school nurse. Students who participate in interscholastic sports must have a physical every 12 months.

A student-athlete who is injured during a sports season must have written clearance from his or her doctor before he or she will be allowed to return to regular practices or games.

All student-athletes must return a parent/guardian-signed health history form and a completed sports physical form at the beginning of each sports season.

BMI reporting to New York State

New York state requires schools to track each student’s body mass index (BMI) and weight status category as part of school health examinations. Every year, the New York State Department of Health surveys some schools for the number of students in each weight status category. If Fort Plain CSD is surveyed by the state, the district will share summary group data only and will not share summary group calculations. In order to opt out of the sharing of this data, parents/guardians must our nurses by Jan. 30.

Water testing for lead in New York schools

In September 2016, a state law went into effect that requires all public school districts in New York to test water for lead.

The law requires school districts to sample all water outlets currently or potentially used for drinking or cooking purposes in buildings that may be occupied by students and to submit those samples to a state-approved lab for analysis.

Regulations called for testing to take place again in 2020 and every five years thereafter. However, the law was amended for 2022-23, changing the time frame for testing and the action level for lead, among other changes.

School districts and Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) are now required to test water outlets for lead every three years, unless the state commissioner of health requests individual districts to test sooner. The law previously required testing only every five years. Effective Jan. 1, 2023, the testing deadline for the 2023-2025 compliance period is Dec. 31, 2025.

The state’s revised action level of lead in drinking water is 5 parts per billion (ppb), reduced from 15 ppb.

New York adopted water testing regulations to help ensure that children are protected from lead exposure while in school. Children are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of lead. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization all agree that lead as unsafe for children.

The NYS Department of Health offers a wealth of information about lead and children on their website.