When Should You Keep Your Child Off School? The NHS Rules, in Plain English

Keep your child off school if they have a high temperature, or if they have been sick or had diarrhoea in the last 48 hours — those are the two clear-cut ones in the NHS guidance. Almost everything else on the usual September list, including a mild cough, a cold, head lice, threadworms and a sore throat on its own, is not a reason to keep them at home.

That is the short answer, and it is worth knowing at 7:20am with a child on the sofa and a work call at nine. The longer answer, below, is the NHS's own list condition by condition, what the national absence figures actually show about how normal this is, and — the bit nobody writes about — what to do with the day when they are home and you still have things you have to get done.

You are not lazy, you are outnumbered. Let's make the decision easier.

The NHS rules, condition by condition

These come from the NHS page "Is my child too ill for school?". They are the national guidance, not our opinion, and your school may have its own policy on top — so check that too.

Keep them off school:

• High temperature — "If your child has a high temperature, keep them off school until it goes away."

• Vomiting or diarrhoea — stay away until they have not been sick or had diarrhoea for at least 2 days (48 hours).

• Chickenpox — until all the spots have crusted over, which is usually about 5 days after the spots first appeared.

• Impetigo — until all the sores have crusted over and healed, or for 48 hours after starting antibiotic treatment.

• Measles — for at least 4 days from when the rash first appears.

• Scarlet fever — until 24 hours after starting antibiotics.

• Ear infection — if it comes with a high temperature or severe earache, keep them home until that settles.

• COVID-19 — home if they have a high temperature or feel too unwell to attend; mild symptoms alone do not require staying off.

They can usually go in:

• Mild coughs and colds

• Cold sores

• Conjunctivitis (unless they are otherwise unwell)

• Hand, foot and mouth disease

• Head lice

• Ringworm — once treatment has started

• Slapped cheek syndrome

• A sore throat on its own

• Threadworms

This is general information, not medical advice. If you are worried about your child, or something does not look right to you, speak to your GP or call NHS 111 — being unsure is a perfectly good reason to ask.

How common is this, really?

If it feels like your child has been off more than they used to be, the national figures agree with you.

In the autumn term of 2025/26, the overall absence rate in schools in England was 6.47% of possible sessions, up slightly from 6.38% the previous autumn. Illness was the most common reason recorded, at 3.37% of sessions — up from 3.31%.

Two things stand out. First, illness accounts for just over half of all school absence — 3.37 percentage points of the 6.47% total. Second, both figures remain above where they sat before the pandemic: overall absence was consistently below 5%, and illness absence typically below 3%.

Two other measures moved the same way. Persistent absence — pupils missing 10% or more of sessions — was 18.10%, up from 17.79%. Severe absence was 2.12%, up from 2.04%.

None of that is a judgement on any individual family. It is context: if your child has been off twice since term started, you are not an outlier and nobody at the school is surprised.

The 7am decision, in four questions

When you are half-awake and they are hovering in the doorway, run through these in order.

1. Is there a temperature? If yes, that is your answer — home, per the NHS guidance.

2. Have they been sick or had diarrhoea in the last 48 hours? If yes, home. The 48 hours runs from the last episode, not from when they started feeling better.

3. Is the symptom on the "can usually go in" list above? Cough, cold, sore throat, head lice, threadworms, cold sore — school, unless they seem genuinely unwell in themselves.

4. If it is none of those — how do they seem, rather than what do they have? A child who is eating, drinking, playing and arguing with a sibling is usually fine to go. A child who is limp on the sofa is not, whatever the thermometer says. If you are unsure, phone the school office — they would far rather have the call than the guesswork.

And one practical rule that saves the whole morning: decide once. The worst version of a sick day is the one where you send them in at 8:45 having changed your mind twice and then get the phone call at 11.

Right — they're home. Now what?

This is the part that actually makes the day hard, and it is rarely the illness. It is that you have a child at home, possibly a well-ish one by lunchtime, and a day of work that has not moved.

A few things that genuinely help:

Set the shape of the day out loud, first thing. "You're on the sofa this morning. After lunch, if you're feeling better, we'll do something at the table. I have to be on a call at two and I need you quiet for half an hour." Children cope far better with a boring plan than with an open-ended day.

Have a short list ready rather than inventing it. The hardest moment is 10:30, when they are bored but not well enough to do much. Sticker books, audiobooks, a jigsaw on a tray, drawing, a film after lunch. Write the list once and keep it on the fridge so you are not designing a day while answering emails.

Protect one block, not the whole day. Trying to work eight normal hours with a poorly child at home fails and makes everyone miserable. Pick the one meeting or the one task that genuinely cannot move, defend that block with a film or a long bath, and let the rest of the day be what it is.

Lower the food bar. Toast is a meal. A sick day is not the day for balanced anything.

Tell someone at work early. A message at 8am — "child home ill, I'll be on the 2pm but slower elsewhere today" — buys far more goodwill than going quiet and hoping.

Take the quiz: is it a school day or a sofa day?

If you are stood in the hallway right now trying to decide, the quiz below walks through six questions — temperature, tummy, how they seem, what they have got on today — and gives you a straight answer plus what to do next.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Can my child go to school with a cough? A: Yes — the NHS lists mild coughs and colds among the conditions where children can still go to school, as long as they do not have a high temperature and seem otherwise well in themselves. A cough that has been rattling on for weeks, or one that comes with a temperature, breathlessness or a child who is clearly not themselves, is worth a GP appointment rather than a judgement call at the front door.

Q: How long after being sick should a child stay off school? A: The NHS guidance is at least 2 days — 48 hours — after the last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. The clock starts from the last time they were ill, not from the first. It feels long when they seem fine by teatime, but sending them back inside the window is how a household stomach bug becomes a class one, and often how you end up doing the whole thing again the following week.

Q: Can children go to school with head lice? A: Yes. Head lice are on the NHS list of things that do not require time off school. Treat them at home — and tell the school so other families can check — but there is no need to keep your child at home for them. The same goes for threadworms, which are extremely common in primary-age children and are not a reason to miss a day.

Q: What about chickenpox — how long is it? A: The NHS says to keep a child off school until all the spots have crusted over, which is usually about 5 days after the spots first appeared. It is one of the longer exclusions, so it is worth telling work early rather than day by day. At Happy Parents Today we'd say plan for the week rather than hoping for Wednesday — you will be less stressed and less often wrong.

Q: My child says they feel ill but I think they are anxious about school. What do I do? A: Both things can be true at once, and it is very common in the first weeks of a new term. Tummy aches and headaches are the usual way school worry shows up in a body. Treat the symptom kindly, ask about the day rather than the illness, and tell the class teacher — schools deal with this every September and can often name the specific worry. If a pattern is forming, the school and your GP are the right people to bring in early rather than late.

Q: How much school absence is normal? A: In England, the overall absence rate in the autumn term of 2025/26 was 6.47% of sessions, with illness the largest single reason at 3.37%. That is an average across every school in the country, so a few days off in a term is squarely normal. If the pattern is longer or repeating, speak to the school — they would rather have the conversation early, and they have seen every version of it.

Get the free planner

Weekly Kids Activity Planner — the one-page plan for the days you have to fill and no energy to invent. Useful for a sofa day, a half-term, or the stretch between school pickup and dinner.

Print it, stick it on the fridge. Free → https://happyparentstoday.com/weekly-kids-activity-planner

Go further

A Mom's Guide to Productivity and Play — how to get work done while they are home, without either of you having a miserable day. Written for exactly the sick-day-and-a-deadline problem.

€9.99. Because the alternative is inventing it at 10:30am → https://happyparentstoday.com/a-moms-guide-to-productivity-and-play