Health Services

Contact Information for Desert Trails Elementary School

Judy Stefaniak, MSN, RN
School Nurse
Office: (602) 449-4103
Fax: 602-449-4105
Email Nurse Stefaniak

Our registered nurse is Judy Stefaniak. We also have Nurse Bre O'Connell, LPN and our nurses assistant is Nikki Callies. The office hours are from 8:45 a.m. - 3:15 p.m.

Our Health Center is eager to work with Desert Trails families on many health and education related issues. In addition, we will teach students lifelong habits that will promote healthy lifestyles. Please remember to notify the nurse’s office of any health problems or concerns your child may have. If your child is on any medication, even if only at home, remember to notify our nurse so that she may help monitor the medication for any adverse reactions. Our primary purpose is to evaluate and/or treat any child who becomes ill or injured at school. If it is necessary for the child to leave school, the parent will be contacted and requested to pick up the child. The Health Center tries first to locate a parent before calling the emergency numbers listed. Always keep in mind no child will be sent home alone or released without an adult to accompany the child.

Reporting Your Child's Illness

Please call (602) 449-4101.

Communicable Disease/Illness

For the well-being of all students, parents are expected to contact the school nurse when their student has contracted a communicable disease. Students who have been diagnosed by a physician to have a communicable disease or who have been assessed by the school nurse to have symptoms that may indicate a communicable condition must be excluded from school and school activities until the physician releases the student to return or the period of contagion has been passed and the following criteria are met;

• If the student is sent home ill, student should be fever-free for 24 hours (temperature below 100ºF without fever reducing medications)
• Student must be free of diarrhea and vomiting for 24 hours before returning to school
• If antibiotics were prescribed by a physician, student must have completed the initial 24-hour dosage of medication.

We request that you do not send an ill child to school to be diagnosed by our nurse due to health and legal factors. If you feel your child is ill, please keep him/her home.

All sick students are to be sent home through the nurse’s office. Students will not be allowed to call parents from the classroom phones/ cell phones to be picked up by a parent if they are not feeling well. If it is necessary for the student to leave school, the parent will be contacted by our nurse’s office and requested to pick up the child. The nurse tries first to locate a parent/guardian before calling the emergency numbers listed on the Emergency Card. No child will be sent home alone or released without an adult to accompany them.

Medication

State Law rigidly controls dispensing medication to children by a school nurse. These requirements are made for the protection of all children. When students must take medication at school, either by a physician's order (prescription medication) or by parent/guardian request (non-prescription medication) the following steps will be required:

• All medications administered by school personnel must be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• A medication form provided by Paradise Valley School District must be completed and signed by the parent/guardian prior to dispensing any medication.
• Medication must be delivered to the nurse in the original prescription bottle or over the counter container.
• The prescription label must have the student's name, prescribing physician’s (MD,DO), nurse practitioner’s (NP) or physician’s assistant (PA) name (only MD, DO, NP, PA prescriptions accepted), prescription number, name of medication, dosage and number of times a day to be administered.
• If dosages should change while the child is on the medication, such changes need to be faxed to the nurse from the doctor or a new prescription bottle provided with the changes listed prior to the new dose being administered.
• FDA approved non-prescription medications, including FDA-approved food grade dietary supplements, must also be in the original, labeled container with information from the parent/guardian as to the dates, times and amounts to be given, not to exceed label recommendations. All medications and dietary supplements must be supplied by the parent/guardian and will be kept in the school health office.
• Herbal remedies will not be administered by school personnel. Parent/guardian must come to school and administer such remedies to the student.
• During the school day, the application/diffusing of essential oils is not permitted.
• Permission may be granted for students to carry their inhalers, diabetic supplies/insulin or epinephrine injectors during the school day.
• Teachers only keep and administer medication on field trips. NO CHILD MAY CARRY MEDICINE TO ADMINISTER TO THEMSELVES without a doctor's order on file in the nurse's office.

It is expected that parents will transport all medications, including throat lozenges and cough drops to and from the health office. At the end of the year parents must pick up any unused medication.