Health Center

At the GFS Health Center, our goal is to keep our community healthy and safe. We work across campus with colleagues in our counseling, athletic and riding/polo, and Residential Life departments and others to ensure we can best serve our students. Parents and guardians are a vital piece of this partnership. We care deeply about our community and look forward to partnering with you to not only keep our campus healthy but to help our students thrive.

HEALTH AND SAFETY GUIDELINES

As we work together to ensure the safety of our campus, students and families can do their part by adhering to the following guidelines:

When to Keep Your Child Home

Keeping your child home when they are not feeling well is the simplest and easiest way to stop the spread of any communicable diseases on campus. Please keep your child home if they are experiencing any of the following ailments:

A fever greater than 100.0 F. Students must be fever-free for 24 hours, without the use of fever reducing medicine before they return to school.
Vomiting and diarrhea: Students must be symptom free for 24 hours before returning to school, meaning 24 hours after the last incident of vomiting and diarrhea, not 24 hours after the onset.
Untreated head lice; students may return after 1 treatment, as long as no live bugs are present.
Strep throat: Students must remain home until two doses of antibiotics have been administered.
Pink eye/conjunctivitis: Students who are unable to refrain from rubbing their eyes must remain home for 24 hours after starting eye drops or until symptoms clear, no discharge is present and the eye is not irritated.
If an adult or student on campus presents symptoms of COVID-19 or tests positive, we will adhere to the most recent guidelines set forth by the Maryland Department of Health, the Maryland State Department of Education and the CDC, which currently (as of March 2024) state:
- Stay home and away from others (including people you live with who are not sick) if you have respiratory virus symptoms that aren't better explained by another cause.
- You can return to your normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, both are true:
  - Your symptoms are improving overall, and
  - You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication).
- When you resume your normal activities, take added precautions over the next five days, such as taking additional steps for cleaner air, hygiene, masks, physical distancing, and/or testing when you will be around other people indoors. This is especially important to protect people with factors that increase their risk of severe illness from respiratory viruses.
Your child develops another communicable disease, such as chicken pox, monkeypox, measles, influenza, meningitis, hepatitis, tuberculosis, pertussis, MRSA, mononucleosis, scabies, conjunctivitis, ringworm and impetigo. Treatment and return to school guidelines are outlined under Communicable Diseases Summary (COMAR 10.06.01).
Your child has a serious illness or injury incurring an absence of more than three days. A doctor’s note is required for returning to school and participating in athletics, PE, or dance as well as implementing any academic, medical or physical accommodations that might be needed.

Medicine Administration

Students may not carry medicine at school with the exception of emergency medications that have been appropriately documented with the Health Center noting the need to self-carry and administer. This could include asthma inhalers, EpiPens, insulin, glucagon and Benadryl.

This policy includes boarding students as well; no medication may be stored in rooms.

Please contact the Health Center if you have questions or concerns about your student's medication.

Your Child's Health Information

GFS uses Magnus Health, an online student medical record system (SMR), to store and access all of your child's medical health records and important vital health information for students in grades K-12. Due to privacy issues, Garrison Forest cannot upload your child's health forms onto Magnus. Every K-12 student enrolled is required to have updated health records in Magnus. Forms are due by the end of July; students who do not have updated, complete health forms by the first day of school will not be able to participate in classes. In addition, any Upper School athlete will not be able to participate in Preseason or athletics until this information is completed.

For more details about required forms, to retrieve blank forms to take to your child's physician or for a walkthrough of uploading your information to Magnus Health, please click here.

MAGNUS HEALTH FAQ

Questions about Magnus Health? Visit their Help Center here.

SUPPORTING OUR RESIDENTIAL LIFE COMMUNITY

One of the wonderful parts of being on the Garrison Forest campus is our boarding community. The Health Center partners closely with the Office of Residential Life to ensure we are providing excellent care for our residential life students. In addition to the required forms in Magnus Health, the Health Center meets with each family during move-in weekends in August to address any questions or concerns and to go over all protocols.

Having the full picture of a student's health history and needs is vital in preparing to care for them, and this is particularly true for our boarding students. Conversations with the Health Center prior to your child's arrival to campus will help us become familiar with their specific needs or concerns, including setting up any necessary local appointments.

About the GFS Health Center

Contact Us:

Email: healthcenter@gfs.org

Phone: 410-559-3200

Location: Shriver Hall

Hours: 8:00 AM-6:00 PM

24/7 on-call service for boarding students

Meet Our Care Team:

Director: Kristin Franzen, RN, BSN
Sophie Daly '07, RN, BSN
Susan Richards, RN, BSN
Cathy Ryan, CNA