HEALTH AND SAFETY

Pandemic Planning Guide

This reference is taken from the February 9th edition of ED Review.

On February 1, the Department of Education joined the Department of Health and Human Services and its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to roll-out the “Interim Pre-Pandemic Planning Guidance,” a critical resource for teachers, administrators, schools, and communities that offers recommendations on non-pharmaceutical approaches for mitigating the effects of an influenza pandemic. The goal is to limit the spread of the disease by reducing contact between sick people and those who are well. Later this year, the Department of Education will provide additional guidance on ways in which districts should administer federal education funding and policies, if schools will be closed for an extended period of time. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GO TO www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/community/mitigation.html.

Pandemic Planning—New Ulm Public Schools and Brown County Take Action

By Scott Hogen,
New Ulm Public Schools

There is no sign right now that the bird flu has become a pandemic strain. But if it does, it could cause a pandemic like the one that happened in 1918, when millions of people died, or it could cause a less severe pandemic similar to those that happened in 1957 or 1968. The world simply does not know. But we all need to be prepared in either case.

For the past 4 years, New Ulm Public School employees have been involved and participated on the Brown County Emergency Preparedness Advisory Council. This advisory team is comprised of about 40 members representing public health, law enforcement, fire/rescue, hospitals, schools, industries, and communities located within Brown County. As a group, we are developing a Pandemic Plan for the county and each local organization is developing their Pandemic Plans around this master plan, which the county will use.

New Ulm Public Schools and Brown County Public Health have been developing a Pandemic Plan for the district and all schools within the county to use during a Pandemic event. The Pandemic Plan is designed using Response Phases, which coincide with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Response Phases, the U.S. Homeland Security Stages, and the World Health Organization Response Phases. There are six Response Levels in the school plan: Level 1—Mitigation and Prevention, Level 2—Advanced Precautions, Level 3—Surveillance & Heightened Awareness, Level 4—Prepare for Possible School Closures, Level 5—School Closures, and Level 6—Recovery. Under each response level there are multiple tasks which each school or district will need to address and assign a person(s) to be responsible for.

Schools will also become an important part of the county plan to provide education to students, families and the community at large during a pandemic outbreak. We are currently working on Parent and Media information packets that the schools will be able to utilize to inform the public of a local outbreak, school closure or reopening, parent tips, family pandemic planning, home care procedures, and much more.

Along with the Pandemic Plan, we are developing checklists and a monitoring system for the county schools to use during a pandemic event enabling them to report numbers of students and staff ill or with symptoms of an illness. These checklists will be adjusted for each specific influenza type.

New Ulm Public Schools along with Brown County Public Health sent “Preparing for Pandemic Influenza” and a “Family Emergency Kit” home with students in the spring of 2006 and most recently we have begun work on a Pandemic web site under the school district’s web page to provide parents, students and the community with answers to frequently asked questions, general pandemic information, and web links.