Last updated: January 2024
Introduction
The threat of an epidemic (such as Covid, influenza, SARS, avian flu, etc) over a widespread geographic area (pandemic) that could affect a large percentage of our students and wider community is becoming increasingly possible.
Based on information from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is apparent that there are steps we as a school should take to remain proactive toward the possibility of human-to-human transmission.
The School’s Challenge
The focus of these emergency guidelines for Frankfurt International School is to emphasize the importance of developing and implementing an effective screening process and to provide public health information on an ongoing basis to ensure that we reduce the chances of students, faculty, staff and school community from possibly being infected. In case of a declared world-wide pandemic, the following procedures will be used, especially before vaccines are available, or if they should be in short supply. Our school’s focus is to be on preparation, prevention, proper response including effective communication to our school community, and containment procedures to maximize overall school safety.
I. Plan of action
The following guidelines and procedures are based on the most up to date resources on infectious disease control.
A rubric to define action
A very specific rubric of actions to be taken by the school in the areas of campus access, educational delivery, co-curricular programming, travel and field trips, transportation, overall school operations, personnel, emergency care and communication has been developed. This rubric is divided into four risk levels that, based on the incidents of human-to-human transfer, guide the actions to be taken by the school and what our FIS community can expect.
Preparation to reduce risk
1. Central decision making: Prior to the determination of human-to-human transmission, the school’s crisis response team will make all recommendations for proper crisis management and implementation of proactive procedures. At the time human-to-human transmission is confirmed, all central decision making will revert to the administrative team and board of trustees, with the infectious disease rubric used to guide decision making regarding school operations.
2. Leadership and coordination: For FIS the pandemic coordination will be lead by the Director of Finance and Operations, whose responsibility it is to ensure that all procedures are fully implemented and effective. The Admissions and Advancement Director will co-lead this effort and will also act as spokesperson on behalf of the school to the wider public. The Head Nurse and the Admissions and Advancement Director will serve as key communicators to local authorities and public health officials.
3. Essential support for employees: In the event of a pandemic, the Assistant Director of Finance and Operations will be responsible for maintaining facility operations and for meeting the expectations for increased hygiene and disinfectant procedures.
4. Community resources: The Head Nurse and the Admissions and Advancement Director are responsible for ensuring strong institutional connections and communication (both domestic and international) to ensure timely and accurate pandemic information. (see Web references at the end of this document)
5. Emergency communication channels: The Admissions and Advancement Director will oversee all communications from the school to the wider FIS community through the use of the school’s webpage, parent portal, direct emails and SMS messaging. All principals must maintain an up-to-date faculty and staff phone tree and school principals will be used as key communicators to ensure proper tracking and communication of teacher and staff member status.
6. Community education: The Admissions and Advancement Director and the school communications team will be responsible for disseminating all materials covering pandemic fundamentals as outlined by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relating to the symptoms of influenza, modes of transmission, and family protection and response strategies.
7. Virtual learning in the event of a pandemic: The school provides division appropriate online portals, which allow for classroom assignments to be posted in support of teaching and learning. These online portals provide the facility for multiple levels of interaction between students and teachers. The school expectation is that all teaching faculty will have received training and will be prepared to use these portals and maintain assignments for a minimum of four weeks. (As more is understood about the nature of the pandemic, this timeline may be changed.) All faculty are expected to have the necessary technology skills to maintain their class assignments and once training is provided, every faculty member must indicate if they need additional help or support for the proper use of our portals. Whilst our portals offer multiple ways to interact with students, teachers are not expected to provide more than posted assignments on our portals. Faculty will be expected to maintain an ongoing dialog with individual students via our school's email system or using the communication tools in the portals. Student work is to be submitted either by email, directly to the teacher, or by uploading to our portals; and feedback to the student on their written work must be provided. Faculty must also be available to answer parent questions about homework assignments. Teachers in primary grades through Grade 1 must develop packets of learning materials that would allow student learning to continue at home, without the need for assignments to be given on the internet, for a minimum of four weeks.
In the event of school closure due to a pandemic, all students must be ready to take home all textbooks and necessary learning materials in order to support the virtual teaching and learning classroom or to fulfill the learning packets provide by primary to grade 2 teachers.
1. Faculty and staff work at home:
In the event of school closure due to a pandemic, faculty and staff are asked to work from home. This means that there should be the capability to maintain the classroom virtual learning site from home, and to have the necessary technology to do so. In the event that a classroom teacher does not have a computer at home, a computer from school will be provided. The school will ensure that at a minimum the teacher is provided with a computer and broadband access to the Internet.
2. Encouraging influenza vaccinations:
Information regarding influenza vaccinations will be shared with the FIS community by the Head Nurse and the Admissions and Advancement Director. A means of tracking the level of participation of FIS families in receiving flu vaccinations is to be implemented.
3. Mental health during a pandemic:
School counselors will develop a plan to provide FIS families with information by email on mental health services during a pandemic. Research recommendations for keeping a family mentally healthy during such a crisis need to be shared. A listing of community-based resources should also be shared.
4. Employment policies during the time of a pandemic:
The Head of School and the Director of Finance and Operations will develop specific wording for a non-punitive, liberal leave policy specific to faculty and staff in the event of a pandemic. The wording of this policy must be reviewed by the Betriebsrat and shared with all faculty. In principle, the non-punitive liberal leave policy will focus on faculty choice as to whether they wish to conduct classes at home or at school at the time that the school moves to a level 2 risk status. Although all employees will be encouraged to continue working on the premises based on the infectious disease protocol, it is recognized that there must be choice.
5. Inhibiting the spread of influenza on school premises:
The school’s infectious disease rubric indicates that all employees, students and FIS community members must provide evidence that they do not have a temperature when entering school premises. The Head Nurse and her team of nurses will develop a one-page protocol for all teachers to share with students on respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette. A quarantine area near the guard house of the FIS campus, outside the gate of the primary school, and near the front entrance of FISW will be established in the event that a student is observed to have influenza symptoms, where they will be kept until a parent picks them up from school.
6. Personal Hygiene: Provision for infection control
The Director of Finance and Operations and the Nurse's team will immediately implement the use of hand hygiene products, tissues and receptacles for disposal at all entrances, all classrooms and all office locations. The protocol is as follows:
Protocol on hygiene measures:
All classrooms will be issued with a bottle of hand sanitizer which can be refilled when necessary.
Hand sanitizers will be installed in all the main entrances to the school. Students should be encouraged to use these at all times when entering the buildings
All students should hand sanitize/wash prior to eating, after using the toilet, and on returning to the classroom after recess and lunch.
All classes will have hygiene instructions given by the nurse.
Students with any signs of infection should be sent to the nurse’s office for assessment.
Students should be instructed on hygiene measures on an ongoing basis. If the student is coughing he should cough into a tissue, or sleeve. If he/she has to blow his/her nose, the tissue should be discarded preferably in the toilet and hands washed/sanitized afterwards.
All toilets in the school will be checked and cleaned on a regular basis.
1. Quarantine requirements for students, teachers, staff, and FIS community members who have been exposed to the pandemic influenza, or who are suspected to be ill or who have become ill at school:
Any FIS community member with observed symptoms or suspected symptoms of influenza is to remain at home. Based on the reported character of the virus, anyone with symptoms or suspected symptoms should stay home for a period of time until the research on the virus judges the person is no longer contagious. Employees will be granted the necessary sick leave as prescribed by the tariff agreement. The school’s quarantine policy cannot be overemphasized, in that any person with symptoms or suspected symptoms must remain at home for the prescribed time until they are no longer contagious. A student, faculty or staff member returning to school after illness must provide a doctor’s confirmation that they are no longer carrying influenza symptoms or are contagious.
2. Medical Liaison:
The school will remain in constant contact with Hessen’s health department assigned doctors for the purposes of seeking emergency response advice and to remain updated on the character of the virus and any needs for changes in the school’s emergency response protocols. In addition, the FIS emergency planning for infectious disease will be shared with public health agencies, all representative consulates, all faculty, staff and every FIS family. It is essential that prior to any declaration of a world-wide pandemic that our school community understands how our school will respond and everyone’s expected behaviors toward keeping all within the community safe.
3. School security:
The security officer for FIS will serve on the crisis team. Based on the risk levels defined in the infectious disease rubric, the security staff will be increased as needed to ensure full compliance with the requirements for campus access and control.
II. Use of the infectious disease decision-making rubric
The decision-making rubric for infectious disease was developed to define specific actions that must be taken in the event of a world-wide pandemic. Three separate risk levels are defined, where at the first two levels the school would remain open. The crisis response team is responsible for making decisions of moving the school to level one or level two. The decision to close the school indefinitely based on the human-to-human transmission of influenza is made by the board of trustees as outlined in the rubric. Actions by Federal or local authorities will take precedence over the FIS decision-making rubric.
The rubric provides for specific actions that must be taken in the areas of campus control, educational delivery, co-curricular programming, community events, field trips and travel, school transportation, school facilities, personnel, emergency care and communication.
The three risk levels are self-explanatory. Any or all of the presenting indicators within each level will be reason enough for the crisis response team to place the school at that level and hence implement the specific actions for that level.
The decision-making rubric is meant to ensure a level of predictability and expectation in the event of a world-wide pandemic.
The crisis response team for FIS remains open to comments and ideas toward the overall improvement of the school’s protocol in the event of a pandemic threat.
Cross reference:
Useful Links to Epidemic and Pandemic Alerts: