Untreated, ear infections can lead to more serious complications, including mastoiditis (a rare inflammation of a bone adjacent to the ear), hearing loss, perforation of the eardrum, meningitis, facial nerve paralysis, and possibly -- in adults -- Meniere's disease.
DHEC publishes the School and Childcare Exclusion List each year. The Exclusion List explains how long an ill child, student, school employee, or childcare employee should stay out of school or childcare, and what is needed before the child/student or employee is permitted to return.
A child must attend school until one of the following occurs: 1  the child graduates from high school. 2  the child reaches eighteen years of age; or. 3  the child is sixteen or seventeen years of age and is given written consent to withdraw by his parents and his principal at an exit interview.