Public Health policy in my area anyway is that children with Chicken pox can return to school/daycare once able to fully able to participate in the program ... there is no 'exclusion' for them anymore

That said ... most daycare centre I have worked in now EXCEED that recommendation because it was found that allowing children to remain in care WITH the open sores resulted in children who did not get the first or second round of them to get a REALLY BAD case once their immune systems finally succumb to the disease the first year they changed that public health exclusion of 5-7 days until ALL scabs were covered over the centre I worked at had 4 children hospitalized for severe 'secondary' issues from the chicken pox ... one kid nearly died from some chicken pox of the bone complication!

My policy requires children to be home until 'any open soars not covered by clothing / diaper' to be scabbed over cause yes they are contagious before through coughing/sneezing so the other kids might have already been exposed anyway but they are STILL and issue AFTER through direct contact with an oozing sore ... so I prefer them to be home until they are scabbed over but empathize that sometimes the 'sweaty areas' covered by diapers and clothes take way longer to actually 'scab' so as long as they are covered and do not poss a direct contact risk to other kids I let em return.

That said I have not had any pox come through in all my years of being open thankfully!