Education Law

Asthma: the leading health cause of absenteeism

Did you know that asthma is the leading health cause of school absenteeism, and that it might negatively affect learning if not well-managed? Or that nearly 10% of children ? three students in a classroom of 30 ? have asthma?

If you are a school leader who is looking for ways to decrease asthma-related absences in your schools; gain information on what should be communicated to parents and staff about asthma; learn about creating policies that protect your students from an asthma emergency; or seek other asthma management tools, then check out NSBA?s School Health Programs recently launched ?Asthma & Schools? webpage!

The new webpage provides school leaders easy access to information on how best to manage asthma in schools.  The webpage, as well as several resources available through the webpage, were developed in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) under a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to guide, support, and implement effective policy and practices to improve asthma management in schools.

Resources available through the webpage include a communication kit, policy development assistance, asthma management success stories from across the country, and information about the collaborative work that five state school boards associations (Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Wisconsin) have undertaken to reduce the burden of asthma in school districts within their states.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on April 09, 2010 (boomark / email).