Flu Season Update

As you may know, flu can be easily spread from person to person. Therefore, we are taking steps to reduce the spread of flu in our school district. We want to keep the schools open to students and functioning in a normal manner during this flu season, but we need your help to do this.

We are working closely with the San Joaquin County Public Health Department to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning schools. We will keep you updated with new information as it becomes available. For now, we are doing everything we can to keep our school functioning as usual.

Here are a few things that we will be encouraging and that you can do to help: .
• Teach your children to wash their hands often with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub. Most classrooms have soap and water, however if they do not, we will be using hand sanitizers as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Please contact the school if you do not wish for your child to use hand sanitizers in the absence of soap and water.
• Teach your children not to share personal items like drinks, food or unwashed utensils.
• Cover coughs or sneezes with a tissue. If a tissue is not available, we encourage you to have them sneeze into the elbow, arm or sleeve areas. Make sure your children wash their hands after sneezing to remove the germs.
• Know the signs and symptoms of the flu. Symptoms of the flu include fever (100 degrees Fahrenheit, 37.8 degrees Celsius or higher), cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, and feeling very tired. Some people may also vomit or have diarrhea.
• Keep sick children at home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have fever and have stopped taking medication for fever or flu symptoms. This will require students to stay home for at least 3-5 days. Keeping children with a fever at home will reduce the number of people who may get infected.
• Do not send children to school if they are sick. Any children who are determined to be sick while at school will be sent home.
• Get your child vaccinated against seasonal and H1N1 influenza. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noted that young people are more susceptible to flu.

If the flu becomes more severe, we may take additional steps to prevent the spread such as:
• Conducting active fever and flu symptom screening of students and staff as they arrive at school,
• Making changes to increase the space between people such as moving desks farther apart and postponing class trips, and
• Dismissing students from school for at least 7 days if they become sick.

For more information, visit www.flu.gov, or call 1-800-CDC-INFO for the most current information about the flu. For more information about flu in our community and what our school district is doing, call (209) 836-7400.