“Our public health officials have recommended that schools with confirmed or suspected cases of this flu strongly consider temporarily closing,” Obama said as he began a news conference in prime time. “And if more schools are forced to close, we’ve recommended that both parents and businesses think about contingency plans if their children do have to stay home.”
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said employers need to plan, too.
“All of us should be dusting off our business contingency plans, looking at things such as telecommuting and the like so that operations keep on going,” she said.
“There is a large ripple effect,” acknowledged Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s newly approved health secretary. “What happens to the parents? Where do those children go? Do you close the day care center if a younger sibling is there?”
Local officials make the decisions on schools, after weighing conditions in their cities, towns, and counties.
So far, closings have affected at least 170,000 students, among the 56 million enrolled nationwide in K-12 education in public and private schools. Most of the closings are individual schools, not entire systems. Most are expected to be short-term, a week or so. Some of the children who got sick are already recovering.
If the outbreak turns into a killer flu, classes could continue even if schools are shut.
If they’ve planned for it, teachers could give their lessons by internet, television, radio, telephone, mail, or through their community newspapers.
If a flu case is confirmed at a school, local district officials may close down that school alone. Clusters of cases at different schools could prompt the closing of an entire system. Closings in many communities may lead to a statewide shutdown.
The decision to close a school is not to be taken lightly.
“It’s not just about the schools,” explained Kim Elliott, deputy director of Trust for America’s Health, an independent public health organization. “If a community is thinking about closing schools, they’re also probably thinking about closing day care centers. And children also depend on schools for a lot of services other than education, including lunch programs and after-school care.”
In Mexico, where the illnesses have been more severe, the government closed schools nationwide. In the U.S., authorities will deal with the problem from the ground up, not from the top down.
“It is the state and local role to plan what’s going to happen, as far as day-to-day or hour-to-hour,” said Brenda Greene, director of school health programs for the National School Boards Association.
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