School Health

“Caring for students, supporting learning—one healthy day at a time.”

Your child's health is in caring, capable hands."

Laine Shoemaker, our District Nurse, works closely with school staff and families to support the health, safety, and well-being of students across the district. She oversees health services, supports students with medical needs, and ensures medications and emergency care plans are managed safely and in compliance with state requirements.

Each school building also has a dedicated health aide who provides day-to-day clinical care and is often the first point of contact when a student needs health support. Working alongside Nurse Shoemaker, health aides help monitor student needs and communicate with families, giving parents peace of mind that their children are cared for by trained, compassionate professionals every day.

Mount Vernon Middle School
Nurse Aide
Bethany Goeppinger

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When Should I Keep My Child Home?

When children don’t feel well, it can be difficult to decide whether they are healthy enough to attend school. In general, students may attend if they feel well enough to participate in class, but they should stay home if they have a fever over 100.4°F, vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, or other significant symptoms.

Certain contagious illnesses have specific return-to-school guidelines, and families are encouraged to consult their healthcare provider and notify the school when a child is sick.

When in doubt, check with the nurse aide at your school. For detailed guidance from Akron Children’s Hospital on when kids should stay home or return to school, please visit Akron Children's Hospital's website.

Vision and Hearing Screenings

Vision and hearing screenings will be administered during the school year to all children in kindergarten, first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades, as well as any new students to the district, as required by state law.

Why is it important to have your child’s vision screened?

Students with vision problems do not know the way that they see the world is not the way they should be seeing it. Without early detection and treatment, vision problems can lead to permanent vision concerns and learning difficulties.

Vision screening will consist of one or more of the following:

Distance visual acuity - ability to see objects far away
Stereopsis Screening- helps to determine if a child is using both eyes together, and may identify a child who has or is at risk for amblyopia (lazy eye)
Color vision - ability to see colors

Why is it important to have your child’s hearing screened?

Hearing is important for speech, language development, reading, and learning. A hearing screening can detect if your child needs further hearing testing. Even if your child has passed a hearing screening previously, their hearing can change. Hearing loss is difficult to detect and children may appear to not be paying attention.

Hearing screening will consist of the following tests:

Audiometry - Screening of hearing acuity.

How will the results be shared?

If your child passes the screenings, you will not be contacted. A screening only provides a snapshot of how your child performs on the day the screening was administered and is not a substitute for a complete evaluation by a healthcare specialist. If your child fails either part of the screening, your School Nurse/Health Aide will contact you to share the results and may make a recommendation for further evaluation by a healthcare specialist.

If you have any questions about the school vision and hearing screening program, please contact your child’s school. If you would like to exempt your student from hearing and/or vision screening, please complete the Hearing and Vision Screening Waiver and be sure to mark NO hearing or vision screenings during your online school registration each year.

Complete the Health Screening Results Form form if your child will be screened by his/her doctor.

For questions regarding vision and hearing screenings please contact:

Laine Shoemaker, RN, BSN, LSN District Nurse
email: lshoemaker@mvcsd.us