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The public education community will play a large role in public health measures to prevent the spread of the H1N1 flu.  The following resources offer schools, districts and communities guidance for responding to a possible pandemic.  We will post more information as it becomes available.

• General Information on H1N1 Flu
• Preparedness and Response Resources for Schools and Districts
• Tips for Preventing the Spread of Flu

General Information on H1N1 "Swine" Flu

• H1N1 Background and Fact Sheet -- One page informational sheet from the NEA Health Information Network with links to other resources.

• Center for Disease Control's H1N1 Flu website (updated frequently)
  [Sign up for e-mail updates from the CDC here, or follow CDCemergency on Twitter]

• World Health Organization's H1N1 Influenza website (updated frequently)

• U.S Government's Pandemicflu.gov (includes detailed Question & Answer)

Preparedness and Response Resources for Schools and Districts

• Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and H1N1 -- Provides guidance from the U.S. Department of Education answering questions that school officials may have concerning the disclosure of personally identifiable information from students' education records to outside entities when addressing an H1N1 flu outbreak.
• CDC Guidance for State and Local Public Health Officials and School Administrators for School (K-12) Responses to Influenza during the 2009-2010 School Year -- Provides guidance to help decrease the spread of flu among students and school staff during the 2009-2010 school year. This document expands upon earlier school guidance documents by providing a menu of tools that school and health officials can choose from based on conditions in their area.
• Preparing for the Flu: A Communication Toolkit for Schools (Grades K-12) -- Provides basic information and communication resources to help school administrators implement recommendations from the CDC on influenza during the 2009-2010 school year.
• U.S. Department of Education Emergency Planning: Influenza Outbreak -- Department of Education's flu resources.
• PandemicFlu.gov's Checklist for Local Educational Agencies -- Developed by the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC to assist LEAs in developing and/or improving plans to prepare for and respond to an influenza pandemic (check here for related resources on the site).
• The Center for Disease Control's K-12 Guidance -- Interim planning guidance for school dismissals (see also the Center for Disease Control's Swine Flu Mitigation Guidance -- Interim planning guidance for communities, including a section on school dismissal).
• California's Ready CA Schools Pandemic Influenza Preparedness for Schools Multimdedia Training -- While the site is state-specific, much of the content is applicable in other settings.
• Kansas Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Action Kit -- A joint project of the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment and the Kansas Association of School Boards, this Action Kit provides practical tools for preparing for a pandemic flu outbreak (other states and localities, such as Contra Costa (CA)'s Health Services Department and Kitsap Couty (WA)'s Health District, have designed similar kits--check your state's education and health departments for more information).
• The American School Health Association's Online Learning Modules -- Includes a series on disease preparedness in schools (all modules are free to ASHA members, and the module on Administrator Responsibilities is available free to all).

Tips for Preventing the Spread of Flu

• The Center for Disease Control's Guidance on Preventing the Flu
• WebMD's Flu Prevention Strategies