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H1N1 Resources for Parents/Providers
The outbreak of the new influenza virus of swine origin continues to grow in the United States and internationally. Please see the resources below for preventive measures you can take, updates on the outbreak and where to go for help.
General H1N1 Resources
Resources for Parents
CDC Recommendations for Child Care Providers
Child care and preschool programs can help protect the health of their staff and the children and families they serve by calling attention to the every day preventive actions that parents can initiate to protect their children. The following recommendation are specifically directed at child care providers. A full CDC checklist and other information for child care providers can be downloaded from the CDC Web site.
- First and most importantly, remind parents and enforce policies for having ill children stay at home during their illness.
- Remind and inform workers not to come to work while ill.
- A child may be infectious for up to 10 days after illness onset with influenza while adults are generally infectious for 5-7 days.
- Review plans for responding to a pandemic and make sure they are updated.
- Know local/state plans for child care in the event of a mild or severe pandemic. This information may be available from state or local health authorities, child care licensing agencies or resource and referral agencies.
- Develop and implement a system to track illness and absence due to illness among children and staff if one is not already in place. The system should be simple and easy to maintain but should record the number of persons with various illnesses (e.g. respiratory, diarrhea, rash) by day or at least by week. (Caring for Our Children Standards 3.001 and 3.002 for information on how to do this here: http://nrckids.org/CFOC/PDFVersion/Chapter%203.pdf
- Review and implement CDC Guidelines and Recommendations for Preventing the Spread of Influenza (the Flu) in Child Care Settings: Guidance for Administrators, Care Providers, and Other Staff (CDC Web site)
- Make sure staff is familiar with the above guidelines and they are being followed in your program. Remind child care staff to clean/disinfect frequently touched surfaces within the facility.
- Provide information to parents on steps that they can take to prevent flu.
- Monitor the postings on the CDC web site about this virus to see if child care facilities should begin preparing for possible closure or changes in operation (www.cdc.gov/swineflu).
- Contact your local public health department if you have questions or suspected cases.
- Review your facility's emergency preparedness plans and consult with state and/or local health department’s pandemic plans, particularly if the number of cases escalates dramatically.
CDC Recommendations for School Dismissal
and Child Care Facility Closure
For complete information on school dismissal, visit the CDC Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/mitigation.htm.
- Dismissal of students should be strongly considered in schools with a confirmed or a suspected case epidemiologically linked to a confirmed case.
- Decisions regarding broader school dismissal within these communities should be left to local authorities, taking into account the extent of ILI in the community.
- If the school dismisses students or a child care facility closes, they should also cancel all school or child care related gatherings and encourage parents and students to avoid congregating outside of the school.
- Schools and child care facilities should dismiss students for a time period to be evaluated on an ongoing basis depending upon epidemiological findings.
- Schools and child care facilities should consult with their local or state health departments for guidance on reopening. If no additional confirmed or suspected cases are identified among students (or school-based personnel) for a period of 7 days, schools may consider reopening.
- Schools and child care facilities in unaffected areas should begin to prepare for the possibility of school dismissal or childcare facility closure. This includes asking teachers, parents and officials in charge of critical school-associated programs (such as meal services) to make contingency plans.
- Concerns about local conditions and responses should be directed at state and local health officials as many of the decisions regarding community mitigation (e.g. closure of schools and child care programs) will be made at that level.
Additional resources for child care professionals
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