·Identify the authority responsible for declaring a
public health emergency at the state and local levels and for officially
activating the district's pandemic influenza response plan.
·Identify for all stakeholders the legal authorities
responsible for executing the community operational plan, especially those
authorities responsible for case identification, isolation, quarantine,
movement restriction, healthcare services, emergency care, and mutual aid.
·As part of the district's crisis management plan,
address pandemic influenza preparedness, involving all relevant
stakeholders in the district (e.g., lead emergency response agency,
district administrators, local public health representatives, school health
and mental health professionals, teachers, food services director, and
parent representatives). This committee is accountable for articulating
strategic priorities and overseeing the development of the district's
operational pandemic plan.
·Work with local and/or state health departments and
other community partners to establish organizational structures, such as
the Incident Command System, to manage the execution of the district's
pandemic flu plan. An Incident Command System, or ICS, is a standardized
organization structure that establishes a line of authority and common
terminology and procedures to be followed in response to an incident. Ensure
compatibility between the district's established
ICS and the local/state health department's and state education
department's ICS.
·Delineate accountability and responsibility as well as
resources for key stakeholders engaged in planning and executing specific
components of the operational plan. Assure that the plan includes
timelines, deliverables, and performance measures.
·Work with your local and/or state health department
and state education agencies to coordinate with their pandemic plans.
Assure that pandemic planning is coordinated with the community's pandemic
plan as well as the state department of education's plan.
·Test the linkages between the district's Incident
Command System and the local/state health department's and state education
department's Incident Command System.
·Contribute to the local health department's
operational plan for surge capacity of healthcare and other services to
meet the needs of the community (e.g., schools designated as contingency
hospitals, schools feeding vulnerable populations, community utilizing LEA's healthcare and mental health staff). In an
affected community, at least two pandemic disease waves (about 6-8 weeks
each) are likely over several months.
·Incorporate into the pandemic influenza plan the
requirements of students with special needs (e.g., low income students who
rely on the school food service for daily meals), those in special
facilities (e.g., juvenile justice facilities) as well as those who do not
speak English as their first language.
·Participate in exercises of the community's pandemic
plan.
·Work with the local health department to address
provision of psychosocial support services for the staff, students and
their families during and after a pandemic.
·Consider developing in concert with the local health
department a surveillance system that would alert the local health
department to a substantial increase in absenteeism among students.
·Implement an exercise/drill to test your pandemic plan
and revise it periodically
·Share what you have learned from developing your
preparedness and response plan with other LEAs as
well as private schools within the community to improve community response
efforts.
·Develop scenarios describing the potential impact of a
pandemic on student learning (e.g., student and staff absences), school
closings, and extracurricular activities based on having various levels of
illness among students and staff.
·Develop alternative procedures to assure continuity of
instruction (e.g., web-based distance instruction, telephone trees, mailed
lessons and assignments, instruction via local radio or television
stations) in the event of district school closures.
·Develop a continuity of operations plan for essential
central office functions including payroll and ongoing communication with
students and parents.
·Work with the local health department to implement
effective infection prevention policies and procedures that help limit the
spread of influenza at schools in the district (e.g. promotion of hand
hygiene, cough/sneeze etiquette). Make good hygiene a habit now in order to
help protect children from many infectious diseases such as flu.
·Provide sufficient and accessible infection prevention
supplies (e.g., soap, alcohol-based/waterless hand hygiene products,
tissues and receptacles for their disposal).
·Establish policies and procedures for students and staff
sick leave absences unique to a pandemic influenza (e.g., non-punitive,
liberal leave).
·Establish sick leave policies for staff and students
suspected to be ill or who become ill at school. Staff and students with
known or suspected pandemic influenza should not remain at school and
should return only after their symptoms resolve and they are physically
ready to return to school.
·Establish policies for transporting ill students.
·Assure that the LEA pandemic plan for school-based
health facilities conforms to those recommended for health care settings.
·Assess readiness to meet communication needs in
preparation for an influenza pandemic, including regular review, testing,
and updating of communication plans.
·Develop a dissemination plan for communication with
staff, students, and families, including lead spokespersons and links to
other communication networks.
·Ensure language, culture and reading level
appropriateness in communications by including community leaders
representing different language and/or ethnic groups on the planning
committee, asking for their participation both in document planning and the
dissemination of public health messages within their communities.
·Develop and test platforms (e.g., hotlines, telephone
trees, dedicated websites, and local radio or TV stations) for
communicating pandemic status and actions to school district staff,
students, and families.
·Develop and maintain up-to-date communications
contacts of key public health and education stakeholders and use the
network to provide regular updates as the influenza pandemic unfolds.
·Assure the provision of redundant communication
systems/channels that allow for the expedited transmission and receipt of
information.
·Advise district staff, students and families where to
find up-to-date and reliable pandemic information from federal, state and
local public health sources.
·Disseminate information about the LEA's
pandemic influenza preparedness and response plan (e.g., continuity of
instruction, community containment measures).
·Disseminate information from public health sources
covering routine infection control (e.g., hand hygiene, cough/sneeze
etiquette), pandemic influenza fundamentals (e.g., signs and symptoms of
influenza, modes of transmission) as well as personal and family protection
and response strategies (e.g., guidance for the at-home care of ill
students and family members).
·Anticipate the potential fear and anxiety of staff,
students, and families as a result of rumors and misinformation and plan
communications accordingly.