Media is filled with reports on the flu. We send home Action Steps for Parents to Protect Your Child and Family from the Flu. The CDC recommends 4 main ways you and your family may keep from getting sick with the flu at school and at home:

1. Practice good hand hygiene by washing your hands often with soap and water, especially after coughing or sneezing. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
2. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your elbow or shoulder, not into your hands.
3. Stay home if you or your child is sick - for at least 24 hours after there is no longer a fever or signs of a fever (without the use of fever-reducing medicine). Keeping sick students at home means that they keep their viruses to themselves rather than sharing them with others.
4. Get your family vaccinated for seasonal flu when vaccines are available.

Find more details in the Action Steps download.

We recommend the following websites for more information:

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

California Department of Education

Health Notes on When Not to Send Your Child to School, and Head Lice