Back-to-school means cold season is imminent. But is it ever OK to send a sick kid to school?

As students return to the classroom, they'll have homework assignments and permission slips in their backpacks.

Something else they could be bring home are sniffles, sneezes and coughs.

With COVID-19 still on the minds of many, and cold and flu season right around the corner, some might be wondering: Is it ever reasonable to send a sick child to school? 

The answer is foggy — especially for parents who can't take time off work to stay home with their kids. 

But Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum, associate medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, says sometimes there are pretty clear symptoms, like fever, nausea or vomiting. 

Other symptoms, like a runny nose or cough, can be harder to decipher whether a day at home is the obvious option. 

"A lot of the advice we give does rely on the judgment of parents or guardians to know what is normal or abnormal for their child or what's different from their usual," he said. 

If a child is too sick to go to school, he recommends staying home for 24 to 48 hours. 

But upon returning back to public spaces, masking up for up to 10 days can be a good idea as there's still risk of "spreading these viruses and [masking] will help reduce the risk of passing to someone else," he said. 

Why kids get sick back at school 

Tenenbaum says the change in weather and closer contact with classmates makes it easier to pass on cold viruses.

"When it's the summer and it's warm and we're outdoors and in well-ventilated spaces, it's harder for these viruses to pass from person-to-person," he said. 

"But as the air gets drier and less humid and as you move indoors because of the cold, it makes it easier for those virus to spread." 

Specifically, children get sick around this season because it's just easier for them to share more germs, said Dr. Mariam Hanna, assistant clinical professor in the department of pediatrics at McMaster University. 

She says the back-to-school cold is very common. 

"They share a lot more than great stories and toys with one another ... They also share those germs," she said.

"Cold and flu viruses being spread in a small classroom environment are not uncommon. This is the time of year where we see a lot more viruses that can replicate this. This type of winter air or fall air that we're starting to get makes it much easier for viruses to transmit from one person to the next." 

Views after the pandemic 

The pandemic has shifted the way we've viewed colds over the past few years, Hanna said. 

"We've gone back to the ways that we would think about things before the pandemic where if someone has mild symptoms, maybe a bit of a runny nose and or maybe a bit of a cough — as long as they're feeling well enough to participate, they can go back to school, they can go back to work," she said. 

"And that is the difference from the pandemic where we would say any symptoms stay home." 

Tenenbaum has a similar view, noting that advice "relaxed earlier on" after dealing with the initial emergency response toward the pandemic. 

"It hasn't really changed over the past year or two, though," he said. "We are giving the same advice."