One of the tougher decisions working parents face is whether to send their son or daughter to child care if they appear slightly under the weather. They don’t want to spread illness around the classroom, but they also don’t enjoy that mad dash to find care if it’s unnecessary.

They have one more thing to consider because child care directors may be too quick in sending children home with mild illnesses, a new study released Monday suggests.

Child care directors excluded, on average, 57 percent of children with mild illnesses that didn’t require exclusion under health guidelines, according to a study of 305 directors in Wisconsin.  Other studies have also found students were unnecessarily sent home with mild illnesses, according to the story, which will appear in the May issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. (You can read a summary here.)

The research findings are intriguing, if not surprising, because parents often talk about the other side of this decision: When moms and dads send sick kids to child care and potentially infect classmates. Now it appears directors may err on the other side, sending kids home too quickly.

These findings also suggest many working parents may sometimes have an unnecessary element to juggle, one that also creates headaches for their bosses and doctors.

Children who are excluded from child care place a significant economic burden on parents, businesses, and health care resources. Mild acute illness accounts for the majority of child care exclusions, many of which have been described as not medically indicated. – Pediatrics, “Unnecessary Child Care Exclusions in a State That Endorses National Exclusion Guidelines,” 4/19/10. (See the full story for footnotes.)

In an interesting twist, centers in areas that had more women heading households and those that had more students on state assistance were less likely to exclude children with mild illnesses, according to the study.

When do folks keep their kids home from child care? Have you read American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American Public Health Association guidelines, which were used in this study? Do you think you are too quick to keep your kids home or to send them to child care?