ATLANTA — School districts across the country are finding a new normal when it comes to handling sickness inside schools. During the pandemic, schools urged parents and children to stay home at any sign of illness, but as they gained more clarity about COVID-19, guidelines have evolved.
Officials at Atlanta Public Schools said they have leaned on their district epidemiologist, Juliana Prieto, for guidance over the last few years.
“My day-to-day is just tracking what’s going on in the schools so that we can have adequate guidance," explained Prieto.
Prieto is Georgia's first school district epidemiologist and she works to ensure tens of thousands of APS students can attend school and learn in a healthy space.
While navigating viruses like COVID-19, the flu, and RSV, she said school advocates nationwide are also learning how to deal with chronic school absences related to health.
“I think this is something that is happening across all districts and it’s happening for a multitude of reasons. That’s why at APS, all of our departments are working on these issues, so we have health issues, but we also have counseling and physiology. All these departments dealing with the absenteeism epidemic because it can be due to a student being ill physically but also mentally," said Pietro.
One of the ways APS is tackling it is by keeping its sick policy updated in accordance with modern concerns.
“During the pandemic, we were much more vigilant about all symptoms. If you had a sore throat, we would say go take a COVID test or you need to stay home until that gets better. Post-pandemic, we have more of an emphasis of you being in the school setting but being comfortable and well enough to learn," added Pietro.
Diana Zito, a working mom of two boys, said the struggle of when to keep your kids home or send them to school is tough.
"Being a working mom, you know, it's hard, especially at the beginning of the year. We have no PTO really accrued. So it's kind of hard to make arrangements for sick kids," said Zito.
Zito's family has been hit with illness after illness for the last several months.
"We've had everything from strep to flu to stomach bugs. Now we have flu B," she said.
Zito said this is why she has become a proponent for getting her children tested before sending them back to school, all to ensure the viruses don't spread to anyone else.
"We do everything we're supposed to do, but we can't help when other people send their kids to school sick," said Zito.
School health leaders like Pietro said that's exactly what parents should be doing.
“My biggest piece of advice to parents is to be just vigilant about your child. You know your child best. If your child is physically ill where, they can’t go to school. It’s okay to miss a day, but we want them to come back to school as soon as they feel better," said Pietro.