EXPLANATION:
Because Barrington 220 values transparent communication, this information reports the daily percentage of absences by school based on general illness as well as flu-like illness. The school district appreciates the cooperation of parents, who accurately report the reason their child is absent on a given day. This information allows our school nurses and community members to monitor the percentage of students in each school who are absent due to illness.
In accordance with the Lake County Department of Health, each school will also notify parents of elementary-age students when five or more students in a child's classroom are absent due to an influenza-like illness on a given day. This classroom update will be provided every two weeks if five or more students continue to be absent each day in that particular elementary classroom.
Because middle and high school students have a greater number of classmates and classes, the Department of Health acknowledges the challenge of communicating absence information by grade or class to middle and high school parents. For this reason, Barrington 220 will notify families if their school has an illness absence rate of 10 percent or greater. Also, the date above provides daily total absence data by school so parents can make informed decisions regarding the attendance of their child.
