BELTON, Mo. - Students will return to Heartland Family Schools in Belton after classes were cancelled Tuesday and Wednesday.
Officials said about 20 percent of the K-12 school’s 150 students were absent Monday. The school is located at 810 S Cedar St., near State Highway Y.
The school isn’t saying how many students they believe might have swine flu or how many have the seasonal flu, but they don’t want to take any chances of any more students or faculty getting sick.
Students will go back to school on Thursday.
While the Centers for Disease Control do not offer any steadfast guidelines for closing schools during this flu season, they have recommendations posted on their Web site.
Here is a portion of the recommendations regarding school closures.
• School dismissals:
School and health officials should work closely to balance the risks of flu in their community with the disruption dismissals will cause in both education and the wider community. The length of time schools should be dismissed will vary depending on the type of dismissal as well as the severity and extent of illness. Schools that dismiss students should do so for five to seven calendar days and should reassess whether or not to resume classes after that period. Schools that dismiss students should remain open to teachers and staff so they can continue to provide instruction through other means.See the Technical Report for more details about school dismissals >>
Reactive dismissals might be appropriate when schools are not able to maintain normal functioning for example, when a significant number and proportion of students have documented fever while at school despite recommendations to keep ill children home.
Preemptive dismissals can be used proactively to decrease the spread of flu. CDC may recommend preemptive school dismissals if the flu starts to cause severe disease in a significantly larger proportion of those affected.
See More Guidance for State and Local Public Health Officials and School Administrators for School (K-12) Responses to Influenza during the 2009-2010 School Year
