I'm not sure if the laws differ by state or the grade level your son is attending, but in the 13 years that I spent working in Early Childhood Education in Pennsylvania, every injury, no matter how minor it was, had to be documented according to State mandates.
We had what was called an "Incident Report" form, and it was filled out in triplicate. We used carbon forms, and they needed to be filled out with a detailed report of how the injury occurred (i.e. James fell off the swing in the playground, scraping his right knee), the time and location of the injury (i.e. playground at 10:15 AM), the nature of treatment given (i.e. washed with soap & water, band-aid applied, TLC, etc.) and had to be signed and dated by both the staff members on duty when the incident occurred and the director of the center.
For any injuries to the head or face, the parent was called immediately and informed so that they didn't walk in at the end of the day and see their child with a large goose-egg or cut on their head or face. Obviously, this also applied to more serious injuries as well, and I would definitely consider a puncture wound a serious injury. You should demand that your child's school provide you with an incident report immediately. If they don't have them on record, (I can't imagine any school not having them) at the very least, you should have your son's teacher write up an incident report on plain paper with all of the details that I mentioned above. It should read something like this:
Injury/Accident Report
Child's Name: ________________________ Age: _____ D.O.B: ___________
Date: _____________ Location: __________________________
Teacher(s): ______________________ Time of Accident: _____________
List Adults Present: _________________________________
_________________________________
Description of Accident:__________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
First Aid Given:_________________________________________________
Administered by:________________________________________________
Follow-up Treatment (If Any):_____________________________________
(Fill in all that apply)
Nature of Injury:________________________________________________
Abrasion, Bump, Red Mark, Sprain (suspected), Bite Mark, Rug Burn, Bruise, Fracture, Puncture wound, Scratch, Nosebleed
Location of Injury:_______________________________________________
Appendage, Buttock, Eye, Heel, Neck, Teeth, Cheek, Finger, Hip, Nose, Chin, Forehead, Tongue, Toe, Ankle, Arm, Hand, Ear, Leg, Shoulder, Vagina, Back, Elbow, Head, Lips, Stomach, Wrist
Notification
Time Parent Notified:______
Notified By Whom:______________________________
911 Called Time:______
Transportation Used Type:________________________
Ambulance, School Vehicle
Message Left Hospital/Clinic ____________
Physician Called Time: _______
If serious injury/death, notify the Licensor.
Teacher's Signature: ___________________________________
Date: __________________
Director's Signature: __________________________________
Date: __________________
Parent's Signature: ____________________________________
Date: __________________
White - Daycare Copy Yellow - Parent Copy Pink - Child's File Copy
This report isn't as detailed as the ones that we had to fill out, but it generally gives you an idea of what sort of paperwork should be filed when an incident happens at school. The school that I worked for made us document EVERYTHING, we even had separate forms for children who came into school with injuries from home so that we would have documentation on file in case mom forgot to tell dad (or vice versa) that something had happened at home before school.
I don't blame you one bit for being upset with your son's school for not notifying you of his injury. Even if the child is not a complainer, that doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't anything seriously wrong with him/her.
~ Dee ~