Sick Child Policy at Daisy Days Daycare Regina SK – Illness Exclusion Rules Every Parent Needs to Know

The sick child policy is one of the most practically significant policies at any licensed daycare in Regina SK. When your child develops symptoms, you receive a call at work, and you need to know immediately: is this a pickup situation? Can they still attend tomorrow? How long must they stay home? This page gives you the complete Daisy Days sick child policy with specific exclusion criteria, return-to-care timelines, and practical backup planning strategies for working parents.

Daisy Days Daycare | 2007 Potts Crescent East, Harbour Landing, Regina SK S4V 2E5 | (306) 807-3233

CWELCC $10/day. Open 7:30am to 6:00pm. Join our waitlist.

Key takeaways

• Why Licensed Daycares in Saskatchewan Have Strict Sick Child Policies
• Daisy Days Sick Child Policy – Complete Exclusion Criteria
• When to Call Daisy Days Before Drop-Off
• What Happens When Daisy Days Calls You About a Sick Child
• Return to Care – When Can Your Child Come Back?

Why Licensed Daycares in Saskatchewan Have Strict Sick Child Policies

Saskatchewan’s Child Care Regulations require licensed daycare centres to have documented illness exclusion policies. This is not a suggestion. It is a licensing requirement with a clear epidemiological purpose: a group care environment with 15 to 90 children in close contact across 8 to 10 hours daily is among the most efficient disease transmission environments that exists. The sick child exclusion policy at Daisy Days protects your child (who benefits from rest and one-on-one parent attention when ill), the other enrolled children (whose parents are equally counting on their care being available), the educators (who are not immune to childhood illnesses and whose absence due to illness disrupts everyone’s care), and the enrolled infants specifically (who have immature immune systems and face greater medical risk from infectious illness).

Daisy Days Sick Child Policy – Complete Exclusion Criteria

Symptoms That Require Your Child to Stay Home – Do Not Bring to Daycare

If your child has ANY of the following symptoms before morning drop-off, they must stay home from Daisy Days:

Fever (at or above 38 degrees Celsius or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit): Fever is the most common exclusion criterion and the most important one. Fever indicates active infection – the body’s immune response to a pathogen. The specific temperature threshold of 38 degrees Celsius is the Saskatchewan standard for licensed childcare exclusion and applies regardless of how well your child appears, whether they have taken fever-reducing medication, or what you believe the cause is. A child who had a fever last night, received ibuprofen, and appears fine this morning is not cleared for daycare. The fever exclusion requires 24 hours fever-free without medication.

Vomiting: Any vomiting episode within the previous 24 hours requires exclusion. Gastrointestinal viruses are among the most contagious pathogens in group care settings, with extremely low infectious doses. A child who vomited once at 9pm and appears well the next morning may still be shedding the virus actively and remain contagious.

Diarrhoea: Two or more loose stools in the previous 24 hours requires exclusion, as does a single episode of diarrhoea that cannot be contained normally in a toilet-trained child or that soaks through a diaper. Same epidemiological basis as vomiting – gastrointestinal viruses shed through stool for 24 to 72 hours after symptoms appear.

Severe or productive cough: A cough that is producing significant mucus (yellow or green), causing apparent breathing difficulty or discomfort, or significantly disrupting the child’s ability to participate in normal activities requires exclusion. A mild, infrequent dry cough without fever or other symptoms is not automatically exclusionary – use judgment and call us if unsure.

Yellow or green eye discharge (bacterial conjunctivitis): Bacterial pinkeye is highly contagious in group care settings. Thick yellow or green discharge from one or both eyes requires exclusion until antibiotic treatment has begun and there has been no discharge for 24 hours.

Rash of unknown origin: Any new rash that has not been evaluated by a healthcare provider and specifically cleared for group care attendance requires exclusion. Many childhood rashes are non-contagious and easily cleared by a healthcare provider – but some (including hand-foot-and-mouth disease, impetigo) are highly contagious and warrant careful exclusion management.

Active head lice: Children with active head lice (live lice present, not just nits after treatment) require exclusion until treatment is completed and live lice are no longer present.

Child too unwell for group care participation: This is the catch-all standard that applies regardless of specific symptoms. If your child is too ill to participate in normal daycare activities and would require one-on-one care and comfort throughout the day, they need to be home.

Symptoms That Do NOT Automatically Require Exclusion

Clear runny nose without fever or other symptoms: Children in group care frequently experience clear nasal discharge related to teething, seasonal allergies, or mild viral infections that have resolved. Clear runny nose alone, without fever or other symptoms, is not an automatic exclusion criterion at Daisy Days.

Mild, infrequent dry cough without fever: A mild, infrequent dry cough without fever or other symptoms is not automatically exclusionary. Use judgment and call us if unsure.

When to Call Daisy Days Before Drop-Off

If you are unsure whether your child is too ill to attend, call us at (306) 807-3233 before drop-off. Describe the specific symptoms you have observed. We assess based on our policy and current health conditions at the centre. We always prefer the two-minute phone call before drop-off to the situation where a parent brings a child, we assess them on arrival, and everyone’s morning is disrupted by a turn-around.

What Happens When Daisy Days Calls You About a Sick Child

When a child develops symptoms during care hours, our process is standardized and prompt:

• The educator observes and documents the symptoms, takes the child’s temperature if fever is suspected, and makes an initial determination about parental notification.
• We call the primary parent or guardian first, then the secondary parent or guardian, then the emergency contacts in order. We will reach someone.
• When we call, we tell you specifically: what symptoms we have observed, when they began, what your child’s current temperature is, and that we need your child picked up within one hour of our call.
• Your child is moved to a quieter space within the centre with an educator present. We do not administer medications without prior written parent authorization on file.
• We expect pickup within one hour of our call. If your workplace makes one-hour pickup genuinely impossible, your emergency contacts should be people who CAN make that pickup when you cannot.

Return to Care – When Can Your Child Come Back?

Condition	Return to Care Criteria
Fever	24 hours fever-free WITHOUT fever-reducing medication
Vomiting	24 hours without vomiting
Diarrhoea	24 hours without diarrhoea
Bacterial conjunctivitis (pinkeye)	24 hours after starting antibiotics AND no discharge for 24 hours
Unexplained rash	Healthcare provider note clearing for group care attendance
Active head lice	Treatment completed, no live lice present on inspection

The Fever Return Criterion – The Most Commonly Misunderstood Rule

The 24-hour fever-free rule means: your child’s temperature has been below 38 degrees Celsius for a full 24 hours with no fever-reducing medication (acetaminophen or ibuprofen) administered during that period. Fever reducers suppress the symptom without resolving the underlying infection. A child whose fever is being medically suppressed is not fever-free for the purposes of this policy.

Practical example: Your child is febrile at 6pm Wednesday, receives ibuprofen at bedtime, wakes Thursday morning with a normal temperature. You may not send them to daycare Thursday. They must remain home Thursday and demonstrate 24 hours of genuine fever-free status before returning on Friday – assuming the temperature remains normal all Thursday without medication.

Building Your Sick Day Backup Plan – Essential for Every Daisy Days Family

Children in group care environments experience more illness than children in sole home care, particularly in the first 3 to 6 months of enrollment as their immune systems encounter new pathogens. Over a typical year, enrolled children at licensed daycares in Regina SK miss an average of 6 to 12 care days due to illness exclusion. Working parents who have planned for this experience sick days as a managed inconvenience. Working parents who have not planned experience them as repeated crises.

Backup Person Identification – the Foundation of Any Sick Day Plan

• Primary backup: One person who can cover a sick day within 1 hour of a call – a grandparent, parent, sibling, or trusted family friend who is willing and able to take the role. This person should be on your authorized pickup list and have Daisy Days on their phone.
• Secondary backup: A different person from the primary – no single-person backup plan is robust.
• Sick care service: For families without family support nearby, on-demand sick care services are available in Regina SK. Research your options before you need them. Having an account set up with a sick care service before your first sick day eliminates the mid-crisis account setup problem.

Employer Conversation

Knew your employer’s policy on family sick leave, work-from-home arrangements, and short-notice personal days before you need to use them. Understand your Saskatchewan Employment Standards Act rights around family medical days before you need to exercise them.

How Daisy Days Reduces Illness Transmission

• Mandatory handwashing: Structured handwashing at all transition points – arrival, before eating, after toileting, after outdoor play, after nose blowing. This is the single most evidence-based illness prevention measure in group care settings.
• Surface disinfection: High-contact surfaces disinfected daily and after any body fluid contact.
• Daily health monitoring: Educators observe arriving children for symptoms that parents may not have caught at home and monitor throughout the day for developing symptoms.
• Provincial public health guidance: During elevated community illness periods, we follow current Saskatchewan Health Authority guidance for enhanced prevention measures in licensed childcare settings.

The Long-Term View on Group Care and Immune Development

Children who attend licensed group care in their early years and experience the initial higher illness frequency period emerge from that period with significantly stronger immune systems than children who were in sole home care throughout. The immune calibration that happens through early exposure to common childhood pathogens in group settings results in children who are measurably healthier, with lower illness frequency and severity, by the time they reach school age. The sick child policy exists to protect the whole community while this individual immune calibration happens.

Related: Licensed Daycare in Regina SK – What Regulation Means for Your Child | Working Parents Childcare Guide for Regina SK | Complete Enrollment Guide at Daisy Days | CWELCC $10/Day at Daisy Days | Infant Program Health and Safety Details

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