Swine Flu Disruption Has School Officials Looking for Lessons

With hundreds of schools now reopened after closing because of swine flu, public officials are trying to distill lessons from the experience, including how decisions were made to shutter schools and whether more school-based nurses might help reduce the impact of such epidemics.

School officials, in some instances, were still grappling late last week with the practical consequences of the closures, such as the disruption to spring standardized testing and its effect on state and federal accountability demands—including the 95 percent participation rate on state tests required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“This outbreak has proven that a pandemic can have a ripple effect in our communities,” U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said in remarks prepared for a May 7 hearing on ensuring preparedness against the flu virus in schools and workplaces. “It’s a delicate balancing act between taking necessary safety precautions without...