Pandemic Influenza School Closure Policies

摘要

To the Editor: Holmberg et al. (1)are rightly concerned that state pan-demic plans in the United States rep-resent a patchwork without centralcoordination or direction. These con-cerns are particularly relevant forschool closure decisions during aninfluenza pandemic. The USDepartment of Health and HumanServices' checklist regarding schoolclosures gives conflicting messages(2). For example, it recommends thatschools stay open during a pandemicand develop school-based surveil-lance systems for absenteeism of stu-dents and sick-leave policies for staffand students. It also recommendsdeveloping alternate procedures toensure the continuity of instruction inthe event of district-wide school clo-sures. These vague recommendationsmay reflect the paucity of data to rec-ommend school closure