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.
Generally, the obligation to support a particular child ends when the child reaches age 18, but if the child continues enrollment in high school following age 18, then the support obligation continues until the first to occur of the child graduating (or withdrawing from high school) or reaching age 19.