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CCSD Not Panicking Over H1N1

Some parents across the Las Vegas valley are wondering if they're going to be notified about H1N1 cases inside of local schools. The Clark County School District says the answer is no, at least for right now.

CCSD health services says so far they haven't seen any large clusters of students with flu-like symptoms, but they are keeping a close eye on the number of kids calling in sick. Still, they say it's too early to start notifying parents.

Instead of being in school, 6-year-old Kathryn made a trip to the doctor Wednesday after waking up feeling a little under the weather. "Don't want it to progress into anything worse or nothing or the H1N1 stuff," said her dad William Couch.

Couch says he's worried about what germs she's exposed to, especially inside the classroom. "You got to take a gamble with it -- go and learn their education but you are taking a chance with this gnarly flu that is going around," he said.

CCSD Health Services Director Diana Taylor says so far, the largest number of absences they've seen at once school is 30. Most schools only have a couple of students absent each day. "If you had a school that had a thousand kids, even 10-percent would be 100 kids. That is way higher than what we are seeing," she said.

Taylor says right now there's been no need to notify parents. She understands their concern and says they are coming up with a plan to notify parents when and if the numbers start going up. "What we are discussing right now is looking at a certain percentage of the average daily attendance and we don't have that narrowed down yet," she said.

Parents like Couch say the sooner the notification the better. "They should notify you when a couple of kids get sick and they know what it is. That way parents can get on the ball and take care of stuff," he said. "Letters are always good. If they have a website to where everyone can see so they could check up on it when they need to that would be even better."

For now, the district says they are treating this like the seasonal flu and parents have no reason to panic. Any child with a fever of 100 or more will be sent home. They are also being asked to not return to school until they have been fever free for 24 hours without the help of medicine.