The Advantages of Digitizing School Health Records

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  The Advantages of Digitizing School Health Records  Digitalization of documents is becoming more popular. Every business we know is rapidly moving away from paper, as proven by online transactions, grocery stores, doctor’s offices, gas stations, and airlines. The digitization model is also being implemented in schools, as it is gradually replacing the use of paper documents in the school setting for all functions.  Schools in the U.S, from K-12 to higher secondary education collect many types of documents related to student health and medical information. It includes student immunization records, records of allergies, health conditions, regular medications, immunization records.  Such immense volumes of sensitive information are subject to the privacy and lifecycle regulatory authorities of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).  Digitizing school health records can help schools overcome the gap. Not only will it facilitate greater security compliance and privacy requirements than paper documents, but it also provides improved data gathering, control, and auditing access, as well as expedites approved release in an emergency.  Let us look at why schools need to digitize their school documents.  Why Is It Necessary To Digitize School Health Records?  Schools face significant challenges in keeping a record of their student’s data. Thousands of children come through the school system each year. Academic institutions must maintain massive amounts of data that grow year after year. This data includes everything from attendance sheets to exam report cards, academic transcripts, exchanges, and papers linked to student loans, sponsorships, and scholarships.  Paper records administration is resource-intensive and time-consuming, and it frequently relies heavily on the knowledge of a few employees. If a key employee leaves or retires from the service, the entire staff will be in a predicament because they may not know where the specific file is kept. The monthly cost of expensive storage space compounds to that same closed system.  Digital technology is fast becoming the norm in the business world. The digital transformation approach and adaptability are helping all of the world’s major sectors in generating growth and success. Education is one of the world’s major industries, and it is benefiting greatly from digitalization. The use of digital technology has assisted many academic institutions in improving student experiences, promoting data-driven decisions, increasing competitiveness, and optimizing resources.  The covid-19 epidemic is another reason that has necessitated digitalization and digitized teaching in schools. Schools are better equipped and prepared with digitized learning experiences such as online classes, online assessments, eBooks, video conferencing, and, in some situations, virtual reality.   Post-pandemic schools gather much of their data in digital files and are moving forward by decreasing the need for paper to keep records. Benefits of Digitizing School Health Records   Quick Accessibility:   Document digitization allows an institution to access data in digital form from anywhere, breaking down the constraints of geography, time, and simultaneous access. Data accessibility promotes data flow inside the school, resulting in increased productivity.  Cost Cutting:  Document digitalization enables schools to reduce the use of physical records, which consume resources such as space, security personnel, employees, and a decay-free environment. Once the data is digitized, we can optimize these resources to save money.  Information Security:  Because the documents have been digitized, access to digital material is simple to specify. Digital access not only decreases the time required to provide access but also lets you specify the level of accessibility. This improves data security and safeguards against data leaks. It is simple to keep data safe with the right type of cyber security.  Higher Productivity:  Data may be accessed by different departments inside the organization at the same time; but, if the data is not digital, accessing it requires more time and effort.  Data Backup and Restore: Digitized data is easy to store in different spots, improving data security. Data storage in various places provides additional protection against data corruption or loss. Physical papers are more likely to be harmed in natural calamities, but digitized data is safer and easier to copy. Natural disasters are frequently unpredictable, therefore storing them in several, secure locations increase the reliability of your records.  Ecofriendly:   There is no need to print digital data for distribution, and it is also simple to handle. To eliminate excessive printing, an email is all that is required to share the data. This will eventually result in the conservation of natural resources.  Strategic Advantage:  When you have access to digitized data, it is much easier to find records and information instantly. You can perform an analytical diagnosis, which can provide useful information.   Ultimately Digitization Secures and Protects Student Records   “Misplacement, inaccurate filing, and accidental deletion of paper records are all disadvantages of managing paper records.” This problem is instantly solved by digitizing the records. Digital files are safely stored, indexed, and instantly recovered when required. These documents are saved on a third-party cloud platform. There are various levels of access permission, each requiring a security key.  A secure digital student record is only accessible and managed by authorized persons. This safeguards a student’s privacy by preventing anyone who does not have the appropriate authorization from reading the academic records.   More importantly, it safeguards a student’s academic record against unauthorized modification, theft, or destruction. Digital records are resistant to tampering and misuse. Final Thoughts on Digitizing Student Data with EduHealth EHR systems, such as EduHealth, offer advanced functions such as efficient data administration, scanning and aggregating data from physical forms and medical documents, and analyzing student health data. It can help assess health trends such as communicable diseases.  School population health data shared via EduHealth EHR can be used to track vaccine compliance, environmental and chronic health issues, and effective prevention measures. EduHealth also streamlines and simplifies the school nurse’s documentation tasks, making it easy to gather, review, update, and delete data as required by various laws.  The significance of digitizing information in terms of confidentiality, security, privacy, and regulatory compliance cannot be understated. In today’s world, converting your students’ records to digital format is a crucial advancement for tracking, managing, and transferring medical records. Using digital innovation, EduHealth can help your school’s health system in progressing and providing better health care.

How to safely reopen schools after COVID-19 closures?

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  Several school districts in the US have been shuttered for more than a year and are struggling with how to open schools safely. The stakes are massive. With coronavirus rates still high and more variants of the virus emerging, schools, parents and children are equally concerned about school reopening safety.   In February, President Joe Biden issued the set of COVID-19 prevention guidelines as proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for safely reopening schools. The guideline deliberates important points of safe K-12 school operations for in-person learning. The President also emphasized that the price of protecting children, families, and educators is nothing when compared with the price of failure to act. He added that mental well-being and educational disproportions due to remote learning are growing concerns of the country and this is one of the reasons why schools need to reopen under stringent settings.     Safety measures should schools adopt on reopening The CDC has recommended school districts to ensure 5 key prevention strategy namely for school reopening viz.:   Universal and correct wearing of masks Physical distancing Handwashing and respiratory etiquette Cleaning and maintaining healthy facilities including ventilation improvements Contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine. The following guidelines were also issued to ensure safety while reopening: 1. Community data assessment To determine whether school districts should proceed with in-person learning, it is important to analyze the data of community-level transmission. The CDC K-12 operational strategy has recommendations about threshold of community transmissions, based on which schools should take associated actions to reopen school safely. CDC has pointed out 4 categories of COVID-19 community transmissions: 1. Low (blue) 2. Moderate (yellow) 3. Substantial (orange) 4. High (red) These categories are derived from metrics such as total new cases/100000 persons in one week and rate of positive diagnostic and screening viral tests that are NAATs and RT-PCR tests. On the basis of these thresholds, school districts can take the first step towards implementation strategy:   2. Require universal masking: Encourage universal and correct wearing of masks that provide necessary protection. Students and staffs preferring in-person learning should know how to correctly wear disposable/cloth masks. Schools should determine how to best support staff and students (including the narrow subset of students with disabilities) who cannot correctly wear masks. 3. Use of school space Ensure classroom layouts have sufficient safe space for physical distancing. School administration has to conduct school walk-throughs for identifying spaces where additional changes are to be made. Schools can identify and utilize safe spaces in their community like libraries and community recreational centers to follow the instruction regarding maintaining physical distancing. Extra planning time should be provided to schools for redesigning classrooms and familiarizing new routines among staff to support physical distancing. 4. Use healthcare tools that lets you stay compliant to DOH directives and privacy laws Using healthcare management software that are FERPA and HIPAA compliant, which also lets you collaborate with public health departments can help you meet diagnostic testing, communication and tracking needs – which are critical as school reopen. When school staff or students test positive, it is important to quickly coordinate with all important touchpoints like parents, healthcare providers, health departments and so on to ensure impact is low and school functions go undisrupted. In situations as such, a school nurse EHR software like EduHealth with contact tracing features can be beneficial for you. 5. Facility improvement: Ensuring proper ventilation, open windows, and doors, using fans where safe and feasible, consistent cleaning of the facility, auditing existing ventilation systems, and improving ventilation wherever necessary are all part of the facility improvement plan. There should be frequent checkpoints to ensure timely changing of ventilation filters and ensuring proper air circulation. Good ventilation is one key to control a virus known to be airborne 6. Sports, events, and extracurricular activities The format of additional school activities should strictly adhere to the CDC guidelines and events that require close contact between competitors pose a high risk than others – it is best not to conduct such events. Other events that involve the least physical contact can be played outdoors with strict adherence to physical distancing guidelines.     Transmission of COVID-19 among students: What we know The transmission of COVID-19 among students is substantially lower when compared with community-wide spread, according to CDC. Other studies also revealed that in controlled environments like schools, transmission rates are lower compared with community levels. The CDC also pointed out that one of the school districts in North Carolina held in-person learning and adhered to strict mitigation measures like wearing masks and social distancing. It was noted that the transmission rate in this school district was low, even when community transmissions were at high rates. On analyzing the school-based transmission rates, experts say that transmissions were more common in adults than in children. The COVID-19 infected children were asymptomatic and possessed high risks of spreading the disease to parents and grandparents. However, shreds of evidence suggest that children under the age of 10 transmit it less efficiently than children of 10+ age.     Should schools reopen? According to UNESCO, the lockdown led to partial or full closure of schools, affecting more than 90% of the student population across 186 countries around the world. In USA, the Biden administration is apprehensive about the negative consequences of remote learning like forfeited academics and mental struggles of children. During the onset of the pandemic, it was assumed that children are susceptible to get infected and were likely vectors of disease spread. However, there is very little evidence on transmission in schools, outside of indoor practices and competition events. Only 3.7% of Covid-19 cases in students resulted from the in-school transmission. This is backing the decisions of those in favor of in-person schooling. On top of this, parents are having a tough time managing kids at home while working. 20% of full-time employed parents have a child younger than 9 at home, of which 61%…

How COVID 19 tracking is helping students’ return to school plans

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  The number of COVID 19 cases and deaths in the US have dropped to their lowest levels in nearly a year, and the number of people vaccinated continues to grow, CDC says. As of May 27, 2021, nearly 133 million people in the US are fully vaccinated, and the national percentage of COVID-19 tests that came back positive over the last 7 days was less than 3%. This is one of the lowest rates the United States has seen since widespread testing began. The CDC now recommends everyone 12 years and older should get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against COVID-19. And widespread vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic. However, a recent study tracking return to school states that only 3 in 10 parents are comfortable with their children returning to in-person learning.   The study implies parents are prioritizing the safety of their children over in-person learning. Most parents say that schools need to be cautious about opening for in-person learning before it’s safe, even if it gets in the way of children’s education It’s clear why parents have this fear. When many schools and campuses opened in September 2020, there was a spurt in outbreaks in school, infecting thousands of students and employees, with the virus spreading to the wider community. It necessitated the need for social distancing, hygiene management and COVID 19 tracking in the school environment to keep the spread of the virus from going out of control. Tracking of COVID 19 has a very critical role to play in reopening schools. A system to track COVID 19 can help school nurses and administrators manage safety of the school environment and ensure children and staff are in a healthy learning environment. Teachers’ unions and other educator groups agree. They say controlling the virus is necessary to reopen schools safely, even for partial in-person classes. And they say that having more comprehensive data on the virus in schools could provide stronger clues about how to do so.     What is a COVID 19 tracker? COVID 19 tracker is a software solution that enables an organization to track and manage the spread of COVID 19 in their community. A COVID 19 tracking system for schools is a critical tool that can help in reopening schools safely and making learning stress-free for students and parents.     How can schools benefit from COVID-19 Tracker? The EduHealth COVID 19 tracker is a single system for COVID 19 tracking in schools with two important modules – a COVID 19 tracker and contact tracer. The COVID 19 school health tracking system on EduHealth is built to assist school re-opening plans by tracking and monitoring cases of COVID 19 in the school environment. The system enables school health authorities to track cases systematically and take necessary next steps to stop a spread in the school and associated community. To help schools achieve this goal, school nurses can use the COVID 19 tracker system for schools to collect staff and students’ symptom-related data, as well as monitor the health and status COVID 19 positive cases. Once a student starts showing symptoms of COVID 19, school nurses will suggest that they undergo a COVID 19 test. This starts the tracking process. The system will inform school nurses when 48 hours have passed since the student started showing symptoms and school nurses can contact the student concerned to know the status of the test. If the student tests negative, the school nurse marks the case as a false alarm, and if tested positive, they are moved to the COVID 19 positive stage. In this stage, school nurses must ensure that the student moves from in-person learning to a remote learning environment. Even in a remote learning environment, parents can update students’ symptom-related information on the system, keeping school health authorities updated on their students’ health information. Two weeks after testing positive, the student moves to the Returns Expected stage, where once again the school nurse can check on the status of the person. Once the student tests negative and are well, they can return to in-person learning, and school nurses can change the status of the student to Returned. At any given time, the tracker shows the real-time status of the number of potential positive cases and COVID 19 positive students and staff. The COVID 19 tracker: · Tracks suspected cases · Monitors symptoms of those found positive and quarantine monitoring · Checks symptoms of students and staff daily with a comprehensive symptom checklist · Manages confirmed cases workflow, suspected cases, and contact information · Tracks false positives · Automates status updates, workflows, and status change reminders · Patient outcome monitoring · Has integrated reporting The contact tracer on EduHealth assists school nurses in identifying the close contact groups of an affected student and staff. With the EduHealth contact tracer, school nurses can collect important contact data and are have the right information for fast decision-making that’s critical to keep the school safe. The EduHealth contact tracer decreases the chances of a disease spread within the school environment with: · Contact tracing · Cohort management · Risk and exposure assessments and status reporting · Reporting and analysis of the case · Emergency contact data information and notification provision     COVID 19 tracking helping keep schools open COVID 19 tracking system for schools like EduHealth COVID 19 tracker are going to play a critical role in helping keep schools open. It provides school health authorities with the right data that enables them to take faster decisions that helps to keep the school environment safe. Schools using the COVID 19 tracker on EduHealth have found the system helpful in keeping children learning in a safe environment. To learn more about managing COVID 19 in your schools with a comprehensive tracking system, talk to us today.    

COVID 19: What to know before sending kids back to school?

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  Children have been learning online for over a year now! Remodeling students’ habits to adapt to online learning has proven to be a complex process for educators, students, and parents.   Students are starting to return to the brick-and-mortar school setting.  But not all parents are rushing to send their kids back to school. This is because schools and parents are equally concerned about the following factors:    Whether the number of cases in the area low enough for the schools to reopen.  The school’s support of mask use, regular fumigation, and physical distancing.  Setting up hand washing stations and hand sanitizer availability throughout the school  The availability of a proper Electronic Health Record for school to ensure efficient COVID 19 tracking.  A proper school nurse health system to support school nurses to contact trace, test, and quarantine students/teachers who have been exposed to the virus.  A recent online survey conducted on 1000 respondents in the United States yielded the following result:    So should your ward go to school and risk infection or should they stay home?   Which brings to the important question of factors to think about while deciding to send children to school.       Questions to answer before sending children to school  There is no such thing as zero risks in the things we do, especially during an epidemic. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answers for questions to be considered before sending children back to school. However, the following set of selected questions can guide parents and schools as to whether or not their ward should be sent to school:   Would sending your child to school affect their mental health?  Surprisingly despite the apprehensions, sending kids back to school is predicted to have a positive impact on students’ mental health. Students are longing to socially interact with their friends and this is essential for their mental wellness. Perhaps children feel they’re stuck in the home environment with no one else to interact with. Therefore, if your kids’ mental health is bothering you, then consider sending them back to school.  Will your children fall behind if you choose to keep them at home?  Don’t worry about it! The whole world is going through similar chaotic situations. Before the classes resume, the authorities will change the class programs to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This is a surety that your kids will be ready to leap ahead no matter what.  Is a classroom setting going to improve your child’s learning?  On reopening, schools will impose a dozen protocols. This might not make returning to school pleasant for students. Some educators are even skeptical about whether classroom settings would be the best option for your child’s learning, while some others remarked that in-person learning is good for students even during these days.  The opinion of having in-person learning by certain educators has been proven right by a recent survey. The survey showed that the majority of the students were feeling ‘bored’ and ‘unmotivated’ by online classes. However, on asking about returning to the class setting, students had mixed but mostly positive reactions. So, whether classroom setting can improve child’s learning is purely parents’ call.      How to prepare your kids mentally after school recommences?   Parents are trying to prepare their kids for school reopening and speculate the challenges they would face. For those who are concerned about how to prepare their kids mentally after school recommences, here are some recommendations:    Plan in advance  Instill confidence in your kids through planning as a family. Educate your kids regarding what to expect at school, and the precautionary measures they should take. If there are higher-risk family members, tell your child the extra caution they should exercise.   Incidents of slip-ups like a mask falling off/falling on the ground, forgetting to wash/sanitize hands are expected. Such mistakes can trigger anxiety in kids. Prep them in advance- give extra masks, sanitizers, and wipes- so that worries won’t take over their coherent thought processes.  Discuss anxieties  Talk to your children about their emotions like: What are their fears? What are they most excited about? Boost confidence in your kids, give them space to synthesize their rational thoughts, and most importantly ask them not to hold anything in, but share what is on their mind with family. Make sure that there’s a dedicated space in your family to freely communicate your kids’ feelings.  Anticipate stresses  Kids are going back to school after a big transition and kids might be anxious about getting sick. Make them practice positive thoughts and talk to themselves with confidence. Make your kids practice breathing exercises if they encounter panic attacks at school. When parents are not around, such stress-busting practices are going to instill a lot of confidence in kids.  Ensure mental health  Kids and teens have high rates of anxiety caused by the pandemic. These periods of isolation have affected their mental health. Parents should proactively check their children’s mental well-being. Watch out for signs like sleeping difficulties, mood swings, self-isolation, lack of motivation, and safety concerns. Reassure that what your child is feeling is a normal reaction to what has been going around. When you feel that your kids need therapy or counseling, do not hesitate to consult a therapist or counselor.  Don’t expect overnight changes  Did your kids’ grades drop during the pandemic or have a non-existent social life? Expect such things not to change overnight. It takes time to fit in back to the school and societal settings. Set realistic outlooks and it will surely take some time for parents and kids to get into the new groove.  Stay flexible and consistent  Parents and students should be ready to face any adverse events that might lead the schools to closure again. Schools might continually change their protocols, so be ready to roll with the punches. Stay positive to change and mentally flexible because it will take time for everything to fall back in place.   Parents should stay on top of what is happening at school and communicate with school nurses to see their kids getting the best medical support. As for school nurses, their schedules are going to be hectic once the kids are back to school. This difficulty in managing their activities can be managed by Electronic Health Records for schools like EduHealth.     What schools can do on resuming?  Schools have lots of medical data to process especially when kids are returning to school amidst a global pandemic. School nurses have lots of student tracking to do to ensure that the children are kept safe from getting infected. A school nurse health system with a COVID 19 tracking dashboard can reduce the burden on school nurses during this phase.   While parents and students take all the precautions before school reopens, school authorities also have equal responsibilities in…

How are schools across the globe re-opening amid COVID 19

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  While big-city school districts and schools in communities living in high poverty and less likely to re-open for in-person classes, the academic year begins for 50 million children in the US. The Center for Reinventing Public Education has analyzed reopening plans for almost 500 school districts across the country, including many of the biggest ones.    Across the US, one in four school districts plans to reopen entirely remotely. An analysis of school district plans has it that about 80% of urban schools will be remote only, compared with 34% of suburban districts and 13% of rural districts.    As for other countries and their school reopening plans, some of them have been cautious about reopening and those who have gone ahead, have seen mixed results. Most others don’t plan to resume in-person classes until 2021. However, it is a lack of access to technology and the widening achievement gap seems to be having school leaders in a dilemma: reopen schools and risk virus outbreaks or continue with virtual classes and leave a set of students behind.      Challenges to reopening schools   Most schools are yet to put in plans on how to deal with an outbreak in their schools. If the schools face an outbreak, it puts children, teachers, their communities at risk, which could even cause deaths.     How have countries responded   Isreal opened its schools in May and had not imposed social distancing guidelines, which resulted in full-size classrooms with close to forty children in them. Reports have it that over two thousand people have tested positive throughout the country’s education system since with the death of one teacher. Following these incidents, most parents now refuse to send their children to school over concerns about everyone’s safety. Israeli schools with reported cases now close for two weeks and all staff and students are required to quarantine for the period.    The Germans have taken a different approach. They’ve kept classes running, forcing those with close contacts with infected people to quarantine.    The Swedish never closed their schools and have been on with a risky gamble skipping the COVID 19 lockdown. Only students 16 years and older stayed home and continued learning remotely. With a focus on personal choice, social distancing and masks were recommended, but optional.    Japan, which has mostly been successful at keeping COVID 19 at bay, has taken a conservative approach. Japanese students attend classes in person on alternative days, so classrooms are only half full. Lunch breaks are silent, socially distant and students undergo everyday temperature checks.    Uruguay’s well-organized and efficient public health system and their strong faith in the government has led to successfully stopping COVID 19. The country has the lowest rates of COVID 19 cases and deaths and has not shut down its economy entirely. Uruguay was one of the Western Hemisphere’s first countries to send its students back to school in stages.   Only six African countries have fully reopened schools. In Sout Africa, students are returning to school in a phased manner by class. It’s the second time schools are reopening after the initial reopening resulted in a spike in the number of cases, forcing schools to close.    Eleven million of UK’s students have not been to class since March, but children will start returning to schools in September. The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged parents to send their kids to schools and has called reopening schools his “moral duty”.    As for most of South and Southeast Asia, most schools remain shut. Most Indian schools have moved to remote learning. In Sri Lanka, the government has allowed schools to partially open for August.  

Detection and control of COVID 19 spread in schools using technology

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  The schooling community comprising of students, teachers, staff, parents, and administration is looking at how they can slow the spread of COVID 19 within the schooling environment. Schools are determining how they can collaborate with state and local health officials to implement CDCs considerations to maintain healthy learning environments.   To help students and communities to overcome the crisis, technology enterprises are developing solutions to step up the detection and control of COVID 19.     What is COVID 19?  COVID 19 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV 2). The disease was first identified in Wuhan, China, and continues to spread around the world, as an ongoing pandemic.     What are the symptoms of COVID 19?   People who’ve come down with COVID 19 have shown a wide range of symptoms – ranging from mild to severe symptoms. The symptoms typically appear after 2-14 days post-exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms are highly likely to have COVID 19:   Fever or chills  Cough  Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing  Fatigue  Muscle or body aches  Headache  Loss of taste or smell  Sore throat  Congestion or runny nose  While this list does not include all possible symptoms, these are the most common ones. CDC keeps updating its list as they learn more about COVID 19.   When to seek emergency medical attention?  You need to look for emergency warning signs of COVID 19. Seek emergency care if you have:  Trouble breathing  Persistent pain or pressure in the chest  New confusion  Inability to wake or stay awake  Bluish lips or face  How does COVID 19 spread?  Learnings about how the coronavirus spreads and its severity are still underway. From what’s known, it is thought to spread mainly through close contact from person-to-person. In some cases, people without any symptoms too can spread the virus.   The virus spreads from person-to-person between people who are in close contact with each other.   It spreads through the respiratory droplets of an infected person when they cough, sneeze, or talk. When these droplets land in the mouths or noses of people, they’re inhaled into the lungs infecting the person.   Another possibility in how the virus spreads is when a person touches a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touches their nose, mouth, or eyes. This, however, is not thought of as the main way in which the virus spreads.     How to slow down or prevent the spread?  Public health measures like everyday preventive actions are integral to slow down and prevent the spread. They include:  Staying home when sick  Following social distancing of maintaining a 2-meter distance between people when out  Covering mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing/using masks  Washing hands with soap and water/using sanitizers to clean hands  Disinfecting frequently touched surfaces and objects    How to help reduce the spread of coronavirus in schools  It is important to take necessary precautions to prevent the spread of COVID 19 in schools. And at the same time, schools must ensure that students and staff who’ve been exposed to the virus are not stigmatized.   The COVID 19 crisis is an opportunity to help children learn, cultivate compassion, and increase resilience while building a safer and more caring community. Sharing the right information about COVID 19 in an age-appropriate manner with children can help alleviate their fears, enabling them to cope with the impact it has on their lives.     What school administrators, teachers, and staff can do  Disallow sick students, teachers and other staff from coming to school  Enforce regular handwashing with soap and water, rub hands with hand sanitizers, or chlorine solutions. Daily disinfection of school surfaces  Provide water, sanitation and waste management facilities  Promote social distancing   Keep updated with latest COVID 19 facts and share only the right information within networks  Ensure safe school operations like developing school emergency and contingency plans, reinforcing frequent handwashing and sanitation, cleaning and disinfecting school buildings  Establish processes to address situations where students or staff become unwell and ensure they’re shared with students and parents so they’re not caught off-guard when a situation arises.  Follow guidelines from the national health and educational authorities.  Change school policies where appropriate   Track school attendance with absenteeism monitoring systems  Plan for continued access to uninterrupted learning.  Integrate disease prevention and control in daily lives and lessons. Put in place targeted health education.   Allow children to discuss their questions and concerns. Address their need for mental and psychological support and explain that it is normal to experience different reactions.  Ensure continuity of critical services for children with special needs, children with disabilities, children in marginalized     What parents, caregivers and community members can do:   Understand the basic information about COVID 19. Stay informed about COVID 19 updates through sources like the CDC and WHO. Be aware of fake information that may get circulated.   Identify the symptoms of COVID 19 that can affect your child. If the child is sick, keep them home from school.   Keep healthy children in school unless there’s a public health advisory or relevant warning against it.  Encourage a healthy hygiene routine. Identify signs of stress in your child. Common signs are difficulty in sleeping, bedwetting, stomach pains, anxiety, withdrawal, anger, clinginess, or fear of being alone. Listen to their questions, respond to them in a supportive manner, comfort them, and keep them reassured.    What students can do:  Children must understand basic age-appropriate information about COVID 19, including symptoms, complications, how it spreads, and how to prevent transmission. They must consume information from reputed sources like CDC, WHO, and national health advisories.     Disease surveillance systems and COVID 19 checking  Disease surveillance systems help collect, analyze, interpret data, and disseminate data to those responsible for preventing and controlling diseases. Disease surveillance systems in schools estimate the health status and behaviors of students. Because surveillance helps to directly understand what’s going on within a population, it helps in tracking and measuring the need for intervention.   EduHealth is a school health…

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COVID 19: How FERPA and HIPAA apply to student records

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  School administrators have to face multiple questions around privacy as COVID 19 continues to spread globally. Administrators must form a strategy on how to inform communities about infections that are spreading among students and their close circles, how to respond to such cases, and most importantly, how to manage keeping students’ privacy safe in such cases. The School Superintendents association has put together a detailed report drawing from the USED guidance on how FERPA applies to schools in the context of COVID 19.   Student health is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and not the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If there is a need to disclose personal information, authorities will typically have to take consent to protect the health of others in an emergency.    FERPA and HIPAA  ( How they usually apply ) FERPA protects personally identifiable information (PII) in students’ health records maintained by an educational agency or institution. Schools can disclose FERPA-protected information only if they have consent from a parent unless an exception to FERPA’s general consent rule applies. In the case of COVID 19, the most applicable exception to consent is FERPA’s health or safety emergency exception.  HIPAA applies when a school’s health services are funded, administered and operated by or on behalf of public or private health, social services, or other non-educational agencies or individuals. HIPAA prohibits the disclosure of protected health information (PHI) without consent and requires entities subject to the law to establish appropriate privacy policies to protect PHI from unauthorized disclosure. HIPAA, however, has an emergency provision allowing disclosure of PHI in certain cases.   How they apply to student records during COVID 19 pandemic  Here’s how schools can share information about students while protecting their privacy during a public health emergency.  If a student has COVID 19, what information from educational records can the school share with the community?  Occasions where FERPA does not apply  Schools can disclose that a student may have COVID 19 as long as the school does not directly or indirectly identify that student.   Administrators must ensure messages to the community don’t identify the student directly or indirectly.    E.g., “A student on the soccer team or a student who recently attended a soccer game tested positive for COVID 19.     When personally identifiable information needs to be released, FERPA applies  If the school determines that certain students had close contact with an affected student during a potentially contagious period.  When there is an articulable and significant threat to the health or safety of a student or other individuals and when someone needs PII from education records to protect the student’s or other individuals’ health or safety.  Actions the school might take during a period of risk:  1. Articulable and significant threat of a health or safety emergency: Articulable and significant threat means that the school should be able to explain, based on all the information available at the time, what the threat is and why it is significant.   In the FERPA and COVID 19 guidance, US Department of Education (USED) states that if local public health authorities determine that a public health emergency, such as COVID 19, is a significant threat to students or other individuals in the community, an educational agency/institution in the community may determine that an emergency exists too.    The 2009 FERPA and H1N1 guidance from USED notes that an emergency could include sharing information when necessary during the early stages of a pandemic.   2. Disclosure is necessary to protect health and safety of students and others:   The school decides that the affected student’s teachers, classmates and their parents, or students with whom the student spent significant amount of time know about the affected student in order to protect their health.  3. Only disclose the minimum amount of information required to address the issue at hand:  The school can choose to disclose to the classmates of an affected student that one of their classmates has COVID 19 without identifying who it is. In this case, FERPA would not apply.  If the school needs to directly or indirectly identify the student, they should make sure they provide the minimum information necessary. Perhaps details like the COVID 19 positive status and a window of time of the infection.  4. School officials should be sure to document when they release PII in this exception:   The health or safety emergency exception requires the school to list the following information in the student’s record: the articulable and significant threat that formed the basis for the disclosure and the parties who received the information.  If the school suspects that a student has COVID 19, what information can the school share with the community?  School administrators can proactively warn parents and students about COVID 19 in the school community to facilitate prevention efforts and ensure that people have information necessary to address a potential outbreak.  It is not necessary to identify the symptomatic individual.  Do not identify the student exhibiting symptoms unless the community needs to know that information, and perhaps share CDC-recommended preventative measures or other resources as part of a message that can help protect parents and students.  Do not make notifications about a student exhibiting symptoms to elicit fear.  FERPA does not cover teachers. So, if a teacher is affected, a school could share that information without violating FERPA. However, state laws regarding employee confidentiality might apply.   If a school suspects that a student may have COVID 19, can school officials contact the student’s primary care physician?  If a school cannot reach a student or parents and suspects that the student might have COVID 19, they can reach out to the student’s primary care physician to ask if the physician can confirm so the school can notify the community.  The school could obtain the parent’s or eligible student’s consent to contact the physician; use FERPA’s health or safety emergency exception.  However, HIPAA may not allow the physician to disclose any information back to the school. HIPAA contains an emergency exception that allows health care providers to disclose protected health information without patient authorization “as necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of the individual, another person, or the public.  If a provider identifies the risk, they would be permitted to disclose the minimum information necessary to the school.  If a student has COVID 19 and the school’s health records…

Is my child at risk of contracting COVID 19?

covid-19 resources, Health Care Tips

  Reports have it that children may not spread COVID 19 as much as adults do. However, as the US plans return to work after lockdowns, it is important for parents and school health facilitators to follow the CDC’s guidelines on children’s healthcare and well-being.   Most children over a year old may show mild symptoms of COVID 19. If they have a fever, cough, runny nose or diarrhea, it will be hard to ascertain if the symptoms are a result of the child having contracted the virus.  Therefore, it is recommended that in such instances they stay away from older people in the house, like grandparents.   As for a solution, wearing facemasks is now recommended by the CDC (for those who are 2 years and old). When children gather in public places, like grocery shops or pharmacies, where maintaining social distance is difficult, it is best for them to be in a mask. The same rule applies if you are from an area with high number of COVID 19 cases.   Latest reports have shown how 1 in 4 patients with the virus did not show any signs of the illness. So, wearing masks is a great way to prevent the spread. Also, ensure regular handwashing and sanitization as recommended by the CDC and health authorities. It would be best if you keep in touch with healthcare providers and health officials for specific guidance on the best measures to take to keep your children and yourselves safe.   However, if your child is showing symptoms of the illness, such a shortness of breath and fever, after coming in contact with someone you know who’s had the virus or you live in an area heavily affected by COVID 19, seek medical help.   For more information on, contact your local health department.  If you are at high risk of contracting the virus, the local health department will guide you on where you can get yourself and your kids tested, and will help you find the best care.  This is an essential step because most doctors are not available to test for COVID 19 at this time.     What should I do if my child is ill?  Children very often have mild illnesses and you can safely treat them at usual. However, if you find your child’s symptoms are not mild, it is recommended that you call a doctor before heading to a clinic to limit the chances of your child from getting the virus. If you don’t have a doctor, you can get in touch with your local clinic, urgent care center or emergency room before you head over as they can provide help via phone without you having to visit in person.

Tips for safely visiting your family and friends during COVID 19

covid-19 resources

As America prepares to reopen businesses, a pertinent question making the rounds is “When can I safely visit my family and friends?” Medical expert and family physician Bethany Panchal in an article for the Ohio State University has said that while there are no universal answers to the question, there are some tips that you can keep in mind, based on guidance from CDC and other public health entities.   Some of the major areas you need to think of before a decision to visit someone is:  Ensure everyone involved in the meeting plan have been healthy throughout the COVID 19 period for at least the past two weeks  Ensure that everyone involved in the meet-up plan has been healthy for at the past two weeks during this period. While any sign of COVID 19 need not be treated at a possible infection, it is best to avoid contact until the infected has been without a fever for at least three days and without any symptoms for about 10 days. Some of the symptoms are:   Fever at 100.4°F or higher   Respiratory symptoms, like dry cough or shortness of breath  Head ache  Body ache  Chills  Loss of taste or smell  Sore throat     Ensure everyone involved in the meeting plan is “low-risk”  Certain individuals are at a higher risk of being infected with illnesses like COVID 19. They are those who are 65 years old and above, living in a nursing home or long-term care arrangement, being immunocompromised, or having chronic lung disease issues, moderate to several asthma, a serious heart condition, diabetes, chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis, liver disease or severe obesity.   Review plans where such people are involved to avoid risks of exposing them to any infection that could compromise their health.    Ensure you can maintain social distancing during this meet-up   Wearing masks, maintaining your distance with at least six or more feet’s gap between everyone can help in minimizing the risk of spreading the infection.    Ensure to keep the number of people low  The more the people, the higher the chance of a transmission. So, keep the number of people in attendance low – set the maximum number at 10.   If you can ensure that these tips are kept in mind, you can go ahead with the meeting plan since the risk for all involved would be low.     If younger children are involved  However, if there are toddlers and children who cannot reliably social-distance involved in the meeting, make sure the elders have a good conversation about the rules. It’s relatively difficult to keep children away from the people they love, like their grandparents or friends, so make no exceptions in ensuring you follow the aforementioned tips during your meeting.    It would be best to consider setting strict no kiss no hug rules during these meetings. While it maybe harder to make children understand about it, the elders need to come to an understanding to keep everyone safe.  Facemasks are encouraged for children who are two years old and above, and keep in mind to follow thorough handwashing during these visits.     Questions to ask to ensure your meeting is safe  Has anyone in the household been ill in the past two weeks? Has anyone in the household been exposed to anyone who has been sick in the past two weeks? Does anyone in the household have any comorbidities (high-risk health factors) that would put them at greater risk if they were infected with COVID-19? Has anyone in the household been in a group of 10 or more recently, putting them at higher risk of transmission? The safest meetings would be the ones in which answers to all these questions is a “no”.    Be careful, always  That said, COVID 19 is extremely contagious. While we pull out all stops to make sure everything is favorable for our plans, we must understand that it Is likely that unforeseen circumstances like many people having it but not knowing it is a high possibility. And they could even spread it to people, who would show life-threatening symptoms.   So, be sure of the decisions you make and keep an eye out for the latest guidance from public health bodies like CDC.     Does that mean you shouldn’t be meeting people?  While some people may decide that they are not prepared to risk meeting other people until a vaccine is developed, which could take a while to develop, medical practitioners, recommend that people who want to meet their families must limit the number of people in a meeting. People should also keep away from participating in public gatherings, follow social distancing, wear face masks and follow healthy hygiene practices.   If you need expert guidance on whether you can go ahead with your plans, consult with your usual primary care provider for their opinion. 

Helping children understand emergencies and cope with it

covid-19 resources, Student Health Care

Times like the one we’re in now are putting people under immense pressure, stressing them out – and it is no different for our children. Children react to emergencies and situations such as these differently, and how they would depends on many factors such as their age, previous experiences and the amount of exposure they’ve had to the situation. Some children are quick to react to such situations, while others may show signs of difficulty at a much later stage. Much of the child’s reactions takes after what they see in the surrounding environment. This makes it important for the parents to remain calm and discuss matters to them in an age-appropriate way as well as carefully monitor what the child is being exposed. Talking to children calmly and confidently reinforces their confidence and helps them to prepare better for the situation at hand and what’s coming after. What causes an emotional effect on children during emergencies? The damage caused by epidemics can be overwhelming. Separation from school, family and friends can create a great deal of stress and anxiety in children. These are some main causes of anxiety and stress in children: Direct involvement with people who’ve been found as COVID 19 positive The thought that a loved one may die Losing a family member/friend/acquaintance How parents and caregivers react to the situation Separation from school and friends Exposure to media Helping children understand facts and cope These situations can engender varied responses in children. To help them cope, you must first set a good example by managing your stress with healthy lifestyle choices. This prepares you to respond to unexpected events, making you take better and balanced decisions that are in the best interest of your family and loved ones. Encourage your children to talk about the situation. Make yourself available and listen to what they are saying. Children must know that you’re always ready to answer their questions. Reassure your children by remaining calm. Children can pick hints from what you say and how you say it. So, it is important for you to remain calm and reassure them Everybody is equally at risk of an attack from a virus, irrespective of race and ethnicity. Do not create any biases. Give information appropriate for the age of the child. Talk to them about how some information they’re viewing may not be correct. Promote healthy practices among yourself and your children. Encourage them to wash their hands, stay away from people who are coughing or sneezing, cough or sneeze into their elbows or tissue. Exposing children to intense media coverage can scare and disturb them. So, monitor the information they’re consuming. Make your children stick to a routine to give them a sense of structure. This could make them feel more relaxed. When they’re past the situation, help them go back to their normal activities such as going to school, playing with friends and so on. Help your children feel a sense of control when this is over. Share the right information and help them stay calm. Let them mentally prepare themselves for the changes and gain an understanding of what has passed.