health and safety

September 18, 2009

Dear RDS Families,

As we prepare for flu season, and with the persistence of the H1N1 virus (or swine flu), we want to ask for your cooperation in keeping our community healthy.

What We Are Doing:

• reminding kids to wash hands frequently (students have also made signs that are posted around the bathrooms to remind each other to wash their hands);
• reminding kids to cover coughs and sneezes and to use tissues;
• ensuring hand sanitizer is available in every classroom;
• changing our end-of-day departure signal from a handshake to another method at lower school dismissal
• encouraging our faculty/staff to get flu shots
• asking teachers to work closely with any family whose child must miss an extended period of school due to illness.

What You Can Do

***Do not send kids to school if they are sick!

• if  the School calls you to pick up your sick child, please come as promptly as possible or have a back-up list of friends or family members who are available. We do not want to keep kids in the sick bay for long periods of time.
• keep kids home 24 HOURS after they are fever free (and that is fever free without fever-reducing medications)
• notify the Front Office if your child is diagnosed with H1N1.

For additional information and resources, please check the CDC website: www.flu.gov

While we cannot avoid seasonal flu and colds, we do hope to reduce their spread at RDS. Thank you for your cooperation.

Mike