COLUMBIA, S.C. — The countdown for students to head back to the classroom means checking lists for supplies.
Many parents focus on lists that are on school district websites. Rising second-grade student Emma Hollingsworth and her mom Heather every year that list is pretty long.
“Just all the school supplies pencil pens, new backpack, lunch box,” Heather said.
One of the lists to check is DHEC's Health Exclusion List for students and childcare facilities to follow.
DHEC releases the exclusion list every year ahead of the return to school. This list gives symptoms, illnesses, and vaccines for parents to keep an eye out for ahead of the upcoming school year. The list also entails reasons a student with select illnesses may be excluded from the class.
The 2022 list includes diarrhea, shingles, and COVID-19 symptoms. The COVID guidelines remain the same as the ones that were in place at the end of last school year.
Other exclusion requirements were listed for measles, pink eye, and chicken pox.
Chickenpox remained on the list. The requirement stated the infected person must be excluded from school until no new lesions appear.
For measles, a symptomatic person must be excluded from class for four days and can not return until cleared by a health provider.
Pink eye requires students with fever and severe eye pain to be excluded from activities.