BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Facing questions and worries about Ebola, the state’s top school board has approved emergency rules that give local superintendents sweeping new authority to close public schools and send students home if they sense a threat.
State health officials say nobody in Louisiana has been diagnosed with Ebola.
Chas Roemer, president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the panel took the action Wednesday as a precaution.
Let’s don’t wait until there is an event to be prepared,” Roemer said after the meeting.
“This is a first step,” he said. “I don’t think it is a final step.”
Under the new rules, a local superintendent can dismiss schools due to an emergency that now includes “any actual or imminent threat to public health or safety, which may result in loss of life, disease or injury.”
The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/1waJr2R ) superintendents can also remove a student or staff member if there is “reliable evidence or information” from a public health officer or physician that he or she has a communicable disease.
Ebola cases have health care workers’ focus on preparation
Assistant Superintendent Erin Bendily said the state Department of Health and Hospitals has already provided information on symptoms and other information about communicable diseases to local school districts and will continue to do so.
Bendily said local educators have asked about what signs to look for aside from typical student coughs and colds.
She said school leaders have been given telephone numbers to public health offices that are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
State leaders also said parents and others should be glad to hear that precautions are being taken.
“You are starting to hear the conversations and the phone calls and making sure our ducks are in a row,” Roemer said. “I mean, they should be assured that we are not ignoring what is happening out there.”
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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
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