Better for the teacher to ask the parents to tell him or her when the sick child will be feeling up to seeing what the class is doing, and THEN sending a little something home, with the stipulation that using the parent’s judgment as a guide, that the student might want to do some of the work, but does not have to, and they just want hime to get well soon. The child should always be allowed to make up the missed work with a little extra time after returning to class.
I was very ill with the flu when I was in fifth grade, and missed a couple of weeks of school. My Limudei Kodesh teacher used to give us a Chumash words quiz every single day. We had to learn a list of 20 Torah words and their definitions, and if we got one wrong it was no problem, but if we got two wrong, we had to write the word and its definition twice, three times for three and so on and bring it back the next day. When I came back to school, I was expected to take the test as always, and I had been so sick that I really could not study properly, though I did try very hard. Normally, I was an Aleph plus student, but on this test I got 8 words wrong out of the 20,one of them having a four line definition.
I will never forget this, because it occurred in early November, and I was up SO late doing the work, writing pages and pages of translated words, that I saw the election results come in for Election Day. My parents had wanted me to stop at one point and go to bed, but I was determined to finish, and I did.
IMO, the absolute best thing is to have the class send home a get well card made in class and signed by all, to a child who is going to be out for more than a couple of days. The homework can wait.