Welcome to the Hanover High School Health Office!

Jennifer Swabowicz

Nurse

The HHS Health Office is open 5 days a week, on scheduled school days. This is a busy office which services the student body, teachers, and staff members.

Candace Nattie, Jennifer Swabowicz, and Lynn McRae are all Registered Nurses who manage the operation of the Health Office. We work as a team to provide the HHS population with supportive health car throughout the school year. Our responsibilities include (but not limited to) the following:

Assessment, and referral if needed, of illnesses, injuries and infectious diseases.
Health screenings of vision, hearing, blood pressure, height, and weight.
Annual Staff and Student Influenza Clinics
Coordination and operation of the HHS Concussion Management Program, for students who sustain a concussion during the school year.
Dispensing prescription and over-the-counter medications, as needed.
Maintaining student immunization records and state reporting of compliance.
Providing disease surveillance, and reporting infectious diseases to the State of NH when appropriate (i.e. Influenza).
Ongoing health counseling, including stress reduction.

Our services are coordinated with the Hanover High School Health Education and Counseling programs. Our goal is to assist students to make healthy life-style choices, to learn to take responsibility for their health, and to become advocates for their own health care needs.

Please feel free to contact us at any time if your child has any changes in their health status. We want to work with students, families, and the school staff to make sure your adolescent's health care needs are being met in the school setting.

FAQ

My Child is ill - when should I keep them home?

My Child is ill - when should I keep them home?

A fever is a temperature taken with a thermometer that is equal or greater than 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit. If you do not have a thermometer signs of a fever may include chills, feeling very warm, flushed appearance or sweating.

Following a fever, children should not come to school until they have been fever-free for 24 hours. The fever should be gone without the use of fever-reducing medicine, such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) or Motrin (Ibuprofen).

Children who have been vomiting or sick in the night should not come to school the next day.

Children with a strep throat infection should be on antibiotics for 24 hours before returning to school.

The Flu: A Guide for Parents (CDC)

Health Topics & Resources

IMMUNIZATION

NH Immunization Requirements

New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services - Bureau of Infectious Disease Control and Immunization has very clear requirements for children enrolled in public school.

NH School Immunization Requirements

Medical or religious exemptions have specific requirements. Additionally, if you are a Vermont resident and wish to keep your child's medical or religious exemption, you must complete the appropriate exemption form for the State of New Hampshire. You can find these exemption forms on the State's site. Please note that the Religious Exemption form must be notarized and returned to the health office.

Throughout the year we go through student charts to make sure all immunizations are up to date in accordance with NH requirements. It is our position that the closer we get to 100% compliance, the better our chances for keeping our entire school community healthy. Keeping that in mind, you may be hearing from us occasionally about out of date or missing vaccinations.

If you have any questions regarding immunizations please contact the health office.

LUNCH PROGRAM

Hanover High School does not participate in the National School Lunch Program but we do do offer a meal program for any students that qualify for financial support.

2025-26 meal application

The above form must be filled out annually and returned to the Health Office for processing, preferably before the start of school, but no later than September 30 of each school year. If a family's financial situation changes at any point during the year, a form will be accepted throughout the year.

Families will be notified if they qualify. Students on our meals program receive:

Mealtime funds added to their account to be used for meals at the school cafeteria
Free Access to athletic programs
Free Standardized Tests
Free College Applications
All Senior Activities Free
Assistance with Driver's Education Costs
Assistance with March Intensives

Some additional benefits to being a participant in our lunch program:

Montshire Museum reduced fees
Upper Valley Aquatic Center

Speak with the school nurse for more information.

We are including the State of NH SNAP Program (Food Stamp) website link to provide additional information that may be of interest.

CONCUSSIONS

We strongly encourage all of our students at Hanover High School who have sustained a concussion to participate in our Concussion Management Program, Chalk Talk. The Chalk Talk program is a collaborative effort between our school and a team of professionals from the Pediatric Neuropsychology Dept at DHMC, headed by Dr. Jonathan Lichtenstein.

We have found this program to be extremely helpful in improving communications among the student, their parents, the school nurses, teachers, and our athletic staff.

How It Works

How It Works

Concussion is diagnosed by a physician. MD note is provided to HHS Health Office.
Parent or athletic department notifies the HHS School Nurses.
With parental consent to participate in Chalk Talk, the School Nurses inform teachers and relevant staff members about the injury, and initiates the Return to Learn protocol.
School Nurses assess your child’s symptoms on a daily basis at the start of each school day, and report back to parents and teachers which color phase of Return to Learn the student will be for that day. Phase progression is determined by lessening concussion symptoms, as well as student input.
School Nurses will send an electronic BoWI (a simple “better or worse” form) to parents and teachers each day, to give feedback about how you/they think your child is doing with his/her progression.
The student will progress through the Return To Learn color phases until completion.
Once the student completes the Return to Learn protocol, the student is referred to the HHS Athletic Trainer to begin the gradual Return to Play protocol which may include Impact Testing (reviewed by Dr. Lichtenstein).
Prior to returning to sports/Physical Education, the student must have an MD note stating they are ready to participate in sports. The MD note is to be sent to HHS Health Office. It may also be FAX’d to (603)643-0661, ATTN: Health Office.

Please contact the Health Office if you have any questions. (603) 643-3431 Ext 2125

The HHS School Nurses - Kathryn Bonyai, Candace Nattie & Lynn McRae

HEALTH FORMS

INFLUENZA

The High School has a Free Student Influenza Clinic every year in October. The New Hampshire Department of Health provides the vaccine. We will notify all parents at the beginning of the school year as to the date and time of the clinic.

Parents will have to fill out a Vaccine Permission Form and return it electronically or in person to the Health office. We will call the students by grade over the loudspeaker to come for their vaccines. We expect them to come when called. If they do not come we inform the parents that the vaccine was not received. We will send out reminders to parents and students as the date approaches.

We strongly encourage you to consider enrolling your child in the vaccine clinic. Prevention for both staff and students is our aim.

Our Parent Vaccine Permission Form is posted only in the fall. It will be posted again Fall of 2020.

Flu Vaccination
Flu Prevention Steps

Flu Vaccination

While it is best to get the flu vaccine before flu activity begins in the community, it is not too late. A flu vaccine is the first step in preventing the flu. Flu vaccine benefits:

Can prevent you from getting sick from the flu.
Can reduce the risk of flu associated hospitalization.
Important for people with chronic health conditions.
Can lessen the symptoms if you contract the flu.

Flu Prevention Steps

The Flu: A Guide for Parents

ALLERGIES

The HHS School Nurses keep an updated list of all of our students who have allergies requiring the administration of Benadryl (diphenhydramine), inhalers and/or epinephrine to manage any potentially life-threatening allergies. This list is shared with all HHS staff. Each fall the school nurses train the staff to recognize the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis and how to administer an Epi-Pen. Nut-free signage is provided for students' classrooms, desks, and a table in Cafe' to protect our students with nut allergies.

Students who have been prescribed an Epinephrine Pen are expected to carry them in their backpacks or on their person at all times. The school nurse may ask individual students to demonstrate that they are carrying their Epi-Pens throughout the school year. Parents should supply the Health Office with an additional Epi-Pen, as well as any updates of the student's Allergy Action Plan.

Students with Asthma are encouraged to carry their own inhalers and use them as prescribed by their physicians. Please consider storing an extra inhaler in the Health Office as a safety measure.

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