New federal government guidelines say that schools should stay open if there is an outbreak of the H1N1 virus, but school boards are taking precautions of their own to help lessen the spread of the virus also known as swine flu.
To deal with so many children possibly carrying the virus to schools, the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) says it is increasing safety measures this year by stockpiling an extra three months worth of soap and disinfectant.
"We have basic measures that apply every day, but we went a little bit further than that," says Corrado Maltese, Senior Manager of Occupational Health and Safety at the board.
In addition to the extra supplies, all custodians will be required to take three days worth of training to learn proper disinfection procedures.
The school board says it will continue to follow other protocols it used when H1N1 first hit schools in April, like daily cleaning of doorknobs and other surfaces like washroom fixtures. The board says it will continue to promote hygiene to students, employees, parent groups and the community.
"We're encouraging everyone to follow basic messages: proper hand washing, covering your mouth when you sneeze, and if you're feeling sick, stay home," says Maltese.
The TCDSB's health and safety information on H1N1 is available in 10 languages.
Maltese said the school board would follow any guidelines put into place by Toronto Public Health. Back during the first wave of the outbreak in April, public health advised schools to remain open and ordered schools to send home a letter informing parents of any new infections at the school.
The TCDSB will again wait on guidelines from Toronto Public Health on whether to continue sending letters home after individual infections are identified this fall.
Toronto Public health says it is still working on a plan since the new federal guidelines were released on Wednesday.
The new federal guidelines suggest that closing schools could actually make things worse by giving kids the opportunity to spread the virus around to the general population in public places like malls.
Even though Toronto Public health has still not finalized its plan, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) says it will send home a letter to parents at the beginning of the year, emphasizing proper hygiene, what symptoms to look for, and what to do when a child is feeling ill.
The board says it will send the letter home a little later than the first week, to ensure that it doesn't get lost in the flurry of documents sent home on the first day.
Although it didn't create a stockpile of extra disinfectants like its Catholic counterpart, the public board says it will be monitoring washrooms several times daily to ensure that soap doesn't run out.
"Caretaker responsibility during shift is to take part of the shift and disinfect and wipe down surfaces that people would normally come into contact with, like stair railings, doorknobs, pushbar plates and fountains," said Chris Broadbent, the board's Manager of Occupational Health & Safety.
The board also sent out letters confirming infections at each individual school during the first wave of the outbreak in April, but it is still uncertain whether that will continue again this year.
Broadbent says he suspects that schools will no longer be notified by public health of any infections.
"Public health has gone on record saying it is so widely spread throughout the community now, we might as well tell you up front that it is in every school," he said.
During the spring outbreak, the TDSB held daily conference calls to help manage the outbreak, in accordance with the board's Pandemic Response Plan, but Broadbent says this time around, the board will watch the severity of the fall infections before deciding on a conference call plan.
He says this wait-and-see approach will likely be the best way the board can help fight the flu during its second round.
"(With the flu) having flexibility to change from something mild to something more serious, then we may have to change our thinking and our approach," he said.
