May School Nurse Newsletter: End-of-Year Health Tips and Summer Prep

May is one of the busiest months of the school year for school nurses. End-of-year health screenings are wrapping up, medication pickup deadlines are approaching, spring allergies are peaking, and the transition to summer brings its own set of health preparation tasks. A May newsletter that addresses all of this in a clear, organized way serves families well and reduces the flood of questions that otherwise come through the health office door.

Medication Pickup Procedures

Every May, school nurses face the same challenge: getting families to pick up medications before the school year ends. Be direct in the newsletter about the deadline, what happens to medications not picked up by that date, and the process for pickup. Many schools cannot legally send medications home with students, which means unclaimed medications must be discarded. Families who understand this urgency act on it. Those who receive vague reminders often do not.

Spring Allergy Season

May typically marks the peak of tree and grass pollen season for many regions. The school health newsletter is the right vehicle for reminding families that allergy medications should be on file with the health office, describing what allergy symptoms look like versus illness symptoms (important for attendance decisions), and noting what accommodations are available for students significantly affected by seasonal allergies. A student who is miserable with unmanaged allergies cannot learn effectively.

End-of-Year Health Screenings

If your school completed vision, hearing, dental, or other health screenings during the year, May is a good time to remind families to follow up on any referrals that came from those screenings. A brief reminder of what was screened, what the referral means, and how to address it before summer when scheduling is easier and the school year's urgency is gone is genuinely useful.

Immunization Requirements for Next Year

Many states have grade-specific immunization requirements that families need to meet before the start of the next school year. May is the right time to remind families of the specific vaccines required for incoming grade levels, the deadline for documentation, and how to submit records to the health office. Families who receive this reminder in May have time to schedule appointments before summer pediatrician offices fill up.

Summer Health Preparation

The transition to summer brings specific health risks: heat, sun exposure, increased outdoor activity, and less structured schedules that can disrupt medication and routine care. A brief summer health checklist in the May newsletter, covering sun safety, hydration, helmet use for bikes and scooters, tick prevention, and water safety, gives families practical preparation information in a moment when they are thinking about summer plans.

Rising Fifth or Eighth Graders

If your school serves rising middle or high school students, the May newsletter is a good place to note any new health requirements or physical requirements for sports participation that families need to plan for before the start of next year. Physical exams, updated immunizations, and sports physicals all have lead times, and families who know about them in May are not scrambling in August.

How to Reach the Health Office Over the Summer

Families sometimes have health questions during the summer that relate to school. Include information about whether the health office will have limited availability during summer months, how to reach the nurse or administrator with urgent questions, and where families can turn for health resources if the school is not available. A tool like Daystage makes it easy to send this May health wrap-up newsletter to all families in a format they can refer back to over the summer.