Education Department highlights effective pandemic plans

The department sent a pamphlet to local and state superintendents in October that described the major differences between the seasonal flu and a severe pandemic and offered tips on how to limit exposure and plan for the worst-case scenario.

A pandemic occurs when a new virus spreads around the world. Health officials have been wary of a particular strain of the Avian flu, which originates in birds and is specifically referred to as the H5N1 virus.

The first report of humans contracting the virus occurred in China in 1997. Since then, hundreds of human cases have been reported, and since 2003, the World Health Organization has linked 151 deaths to the flu.

While most of the infections have occurred in Asia, history has shown a global pandemic is inevitable. Although pandem­ics are rare, they are huge. The last major worldwide outbreak, in 1968, killed 1 million people -- 34,000 of them in the United States.

School buildings could play a major role in spreading a pandemic because of their population densities and because children contract and spread germs and illness at a faster rate than adults. As a result, must play a key role in prevention strategies.

The Education Department cited several districts for having good pandemic plans in place.

The Broward County, Fla., school system, for example, has developed a comprehensive six-phase strategy ranging from prevention to recovery.

California’s Department of Education recently released a checklist that school districts and child care centers can use to develop pandemic plans. And the DeKalb County, Ga., school system’s pandemic plan was recently featured on the Department of Education’s television program, “Education News Parents Can Use.”

DeKalb County actually jumped on the ball well over a year ago, largely because of the initiative of Deputy Superintendent Gary McGivoney. “I called the county’s board of health and asked the director what is their plan and how does it affect schools,” he said. The short answer was they didn’t have one yet, and McGivoney soon found himself in the unique position of helping to craft local, regional, and state pandemic plans. “I’ve learned more than I’ve ever wanted to know,” he said.

Indeed, one thing McGivoney has learned is that there aren’t always concrete answers to important questions like which authority and what conditions will determine whether a school should be closed. In a letter to local and state educators, the U.S. Education Department readily admitted that school closures remain an unresolved issue.

In DeKalb, any time the district’s attendance rate drops below 90 percent, the county board of health is notified. Last year, county health officials visited several schools whose enrollment suddenly dipped but discovered the cause was just a mild form of flu. If county health officials suspect something more virulent is spreading through the schools, they will confer and make a joint decision with the school board.

As much as it can, the district’s plans also address how it will operate during an outbreak and the recovery process. “It comes home very clearly that you have to include everybody,” McGivoney said. “We may have teachers ready to come back, but what about bus drivers or cafeteria workers? In a school system, everybody is essential.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever be satisfied that we have the perfect plan because we don’t know how this will emerge,” McGivoney said. “But we do feel confident that, at least, we’re on the right track.”