Schoolteachers Are Awesome – School Health Policies, Less So | Survivor: Pediatrics

This is a sad but true phenomenon: kids who are sick and really just need to stay home to rest have to be dragged into the office, exposing those new babies to viral foes, and wasting an already stressed parent's time and money. Why? To get a note for school. From Dr. Berman's blog:

"If a mother calls the school and says her child is sick, the school won’t accept it. But if a mother calls me and says her child is sick, and I write a note to the school saying “Mom says her child is sick,” that somehow becomes acceptable documentation for the school.

The school expects me to take mom’s word for it but is unwilling to do so itself more than five times per semester.

This neatly passes the buck (or should I say, the bucks) to me, the de facto attendance secretary. And an MD is a pretty expensive attendance secretary."


Thanks, Dr. Berman, for so nicely explaining one of the peeves of pediatricians everywhere!

Schoolteachers Are Awesome – School Health Policies, Less So | Survivor: Pediatrics