Public Health, Medical, and Mental Health Annex

The primary purpose of the Public Health, Medical, and Mental Health Annex is to put in place systems and protocols to prevent and/or limit physical and mental health harm and to facilitate healthy coping and responsive behaviors among adults and students. Obviously, this annex is central to the overall plan for response to significant infectious disease outbreak.

• Promote daily preventive actions for all staff, students, and families. This includes the following:
• Helping staff and students understand how to protect themselves and that the practice of healthy habits can help to reduce the potential of traumatic impact on people. Providing this information can increase the level of control that people perceive that they have over the crisis event.
• Encouraging students to practice everyday good hygiene—simple steps to prevent the spread of illness:
• Wash hands multiple times a day for at least 20 seconds (singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” slowly takes about 20 seconds)
• Covering their mouths with a tissue when they sneeze or cough and throwing out the tissue immediately, and not sharing food or They can also sneeze or cough into the bend of their elbow.
• Practice giving fist or elbow bumps instead of handshakes. Fewer germs are spread this way.
• Giving students guidance on what they can do to prevent infection gives them a greater sense of control over disease spread and will help to reduce their anxiety.
• Encouraging students to eat a balanced diet, get enough sleep, and exercise regularly—this will help them develop strong immune systems to fight off illness.
• Develop a policy that enables school administrators to control access to the buildings.
• Each school should have a plan to lock down certain entrances and exits and to monitor others, if necessary.
• Develop plans for stockpiling and distributing infection-control supplies.
• Provide routine training about flu transmission, prevention, and control measures.
• Conduct mock exercises related to surveillance and infection control in pandemic flu.
• Educate employees and visitors not to come to the facility if they have flu symptoms.
• Assess adequacy of infection-control supplies and review distribution plan.
• Air conditioning system filters should be cleaned and changed frequently.

Preparing for a Pandemic Illness: Guidelines for School Administrators and School Crisis Response Teams. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2020, from https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-climate-safety-and-crisis/health-crisis-resources/preparing-for-a-pandemic-illness-guidelines-for-school-administrators-and-school-crisis-response-teams 

Communication and Warning Annex

 The primary focus of the Communication and Warning Annex is to ensure timely, accurate information gets to key stakeholders (e.g., staff, families, students, community) in a controlled and reliable process that facilitates the goals of the EOP.

• Protection/Mitigation
• Create draft communication messages for families and the community with the local health department to inform them, with updated information about the pandemic illness and how to remain healthy. Schools should prepare a letter and social media posts for when the illness is confirmed in the community, when a significant number of students are found ill, and when schools need to close due to the illness.
• Response
• Communication should go out via multiple methods (e.g., television, social media, email, letters home, voicemail).
• Information should provide current information about actions schools are taking to help ensure physical safety and also provide guidance that empowers families to help students cope emotionally with the crisis event.

Preparing for a Pandemic Illness: Guidelines for School Administrators and School Crisis Response Teams. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2020, from https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-climate-safety-and-crisis/health-crisis-resources/preparing-for-a-pandemic-illness-guidelines-for-school-administrators-and-school-crisis-response-teams

School Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) Annexes

Each school or school district should have an emergency operations plan (EOP)—commonly referred to as a crisis plan—to help them respond to multiple emergencies that can occur during the school year. The U.S. Department of Education developed a guide in collaboration with other federal agencies (e.g., FEMA, DHS, and Homeland Security) to support schools in updating their EOP. The EOP should provide information to support pandemic illness planning. There are multiple functional annexes (sub-plans) that will support a pandemic illness crisis response including but not limited to:

• Communication and Warning Annex
• Public Health, Medical, and Mental Health Annex
• Continuity of Operations (COOP) Annex
• Recovery Annex

Your school should have a Pandemic Illness threat- and hazard-specific annex that incorporates the functional annexes above. The annex should be developed in collaboration with public health and safety organizations. While this document cannot go in depth into the development of each of these annexes, it will provide some information to help guide the preparedness process.

Preparing for a Pandemic Illness: Guidelines for School Administrators and School Crisis Response Teams. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2020, from https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-climate-safety-and-crisis/health-crisis-resources/preparing-for-a-pandemic-illness-guidelines-for-school-administrators-and-school-crisis-response-teams

Preparing for a Pandemic Illness: Guidelines for School Administrators and School Crisis Response Teams

 Among the many emergencies to which schools must be prepared to respond is the possibility of a local and community-wide infectious disease outbreak. While it is difficult to predict if or when an illness will rise to an epidemic or even pandemic level, there are steps that schools can take to work collaboratively and effectively with local and state health departments in order to limit the spread of disease and to provide safe learning environments. The information provided here is based on U.S. Department of Education (DoE) guidance and NASP’s PREPaRE School Crisis Prevention and Intervention Training Curriculum. It draws on pandemic influenza guidelines that can be applied to any potential infectious disease event, including the current COVID-19 (coronavirus) virus. (See also interim CDC guidance for schools regarding COVID-19.)

Preparing for a Pandemic Illness: Guidelines for School Administrators and School Crisis Response Teams. (n.d.). Retrieved October 9, 2020, from https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-climate-safety-and-crisis/health-crisis-resources/preparing-for-a-pandemic-illness-guidelines-for-school-administrators-and-school-crisis-response-teams

Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic on Education

 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak poses serious concerns to global education systems. Efforts to contain COVID-19 prompted unscheduled closure of schools in more than 100 countries worldwide. COVID-19 school closures leftover one billion learners out of school. The study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on education. Data were collected through structured questionnaires administered to 200 respondents that consist of teachers, students, parents, and policymakers selected from different countries. The collected data were analyzed using STATA/Regression. The results show that COVID-19 has adverse effects on education including, learning disruptions, and decreased access to education and research facilities, Job losses, and increased student debts. The findings also show that many educators and students relied on technology to ensure continued learning online during the Coronavirus pandemic. However, online education was hindered by poor infrastructures including, network, power, inaccessibility and unavailability issues, and poor digital skills. The study underscores the damaging effects of COVID-19 on the education sector and the need for all educational institutions, educators, and learners to adopt technology and improve their digital skills in line with the emerging global trends and realities in education.

Onyema, E. M., Nwafor, C., Faith, A., Sen, S., & Alsayed, A. O. (2020, May 31). Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic on Education. Retrieved October 6, 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341787426_Impact_of_Coronavirus_Pandemic_on_Education

We are still in a pandemic ...

 The COVID-19 pandemic continues to escalate and schools remain closed. This virus is already stronger than us human beings, since it invaded us completely, for example in Durango, unfortunately, people continue to not respect the established alignments to reduce infections, since people continue without using the mask and without respecting the healthy distance.