Health-room papers and infection absence: when your child must stay home, and what to hand in after

The school nurse's office (保健室, hokenshitsu) sends home health papers: a health newsletter (ほけんだより or 保健だより, hoken-dayori) and notices about illnesses. The part that can require you to act is the rule on infection absence (出席停止, shusseki teishi, "suspension from attendance"). If a doctor diagnoses certain infections, your child may not attend until a set period has passed, and you may need a paper to come back.

This article follows one real notice: Ogura Elementary in Kawasaki (川崎市立小倉小学校), "Handling of infectious diseases", dated 7 April 2026. Your school's version may differ, especially the forms.

What the notice asked parents to do

• Check the table on the back. If a doctor diagnoses an illness in the table, your child stays home until the doctor allows a return:

  表に記載されている感染症と診断された場合、医師の許可がでるまでは出席停止となります。

• Tell the school as early as possible once an infection is confirmed:

  感染症が確認された時点で、なるべく早めに学校へご連絡ください。

• When your child returns, hand in a return-to-school certificate (登校許可証明書, tōkō kyoka shōmeisho) that you ask the doctor to fill in, on the first day back.
• Check your child's health before school. With fever, sore throat, cough or other unusual symptoms, keep your child home. With a fever, the school recommends seeing a doctor.

Two exceptions on that school's 2026 notice:

• Influenza: for the time being, no doctor's certificate. You fill in a home form instead, the "influenza recovery report" (インフルエンザ療養報告書).
• COVID-19: no certificate is needed. After the absence ends, a mask is recommended until 10 days after symptoms began.

The periods on the table

The table has two parts: illnesses listed by the Kawasaki City Medical Association (川崎市医師会), and the remaining school infections set by the ordinance under the School Health and Safety Act (学校保健安全法施行規則).

Illness	Stay home until
Influenza (インフルエンザ)	5 days have passed since onset and 2 days since the fever went down. The day of onset and the day the fever drops count as day 0.
COVID-19 (新型コロナウイルス感染症)	5 days have passed since onset and 1 day since symptoms eased.
Whooping cough (百日せき)	The typical cough is gone, or 5 days of proper antibiotic treatment are finished.
Measles (麻しん)	3 days after the fever goes down, and cough and rash have eased.
Rubella (風しん)	The rash has faded.
Chickenpox (水痘)	Every spot has crusted over.
Mumps (流行性耳下腺炎)	5 days after the swelling began, and the child is generally well.
Pharyngoconjunctival fever, "pool fever" (咽頭結膜熱)	2 days after fever and redness are gone.
Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (流行性角結膜炎)	Eye redness and the gritty feeling are gone.
Strep throat (溶連菌感染症)	Main symptoms are gone, or 24 hours after antibiotics started.
Tuberculosis, meningococcal meningitis, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, EHEC and others	A school doctor or another doctor finds no risk of infection.

For the most serious diseases on the ordinance list (Ebola, plague, polio, diphtheria and others), the period is until the child is cured.

Words to look for on a health paper

On the paper	Meaning
出席停止	Infection absence: the school tells the child not to attend.
登校許可証明書	Return-to-school certificate, filled in by the doctor.
インフルエンザ療養報告書	Influenza recovery report, filled in by the parent.
発症後5日を経過し、かつ、解熱後2日を経過するまで	Until 5 days after onset and 2 days after the fever went down.
登校を控え、自宅で休養していただきますようお願いいたします。	Please keep your child home to rest.

Even on this one notice, what you hand in depends on the illness: a doctor's certificate, a parent's form, or nothing. Other schools, wards and cities use other forms. Use your school's notice, and ask the school nurse (養護教諭, yōgo kyōyu) if a form is missing.