School Services

Services Provided to Schools & Day Cares

Communicable Disease Control

Public Health staff works with schools and day cares in an effort to limit the spread of disease and to reduce absenteeism by:

• Assisting staff to develop communicable disease prevention and surveillance plans to minimize disease and health nuisances that may disrupt attendance (e.g., food-borne illnesses, influenza, head lice, scabies, etc.)
• Providing guidance with state-required immunization status reports
• Working with staff when disease outbreaks occur to identify and implement measures to curtail the outbreak

Health Promotion

The Public Health staff acts as a resource related to health promotion by:

• Acting as a community resource for pregnant teens through the provision of Public Health Nurse visits
• Providing information that enhance the health of the community [e.g., community wellness programs such as UCAN (activity and nutrition), alcohol, tobacco, drugs, mental health, etc.] or that may contribute to curriculum (e.g., local incidence of sexually transmitted infections, hand washing, and safe food handling).
• Providing information via Public Health Alerts, newsletters, and the Division of Public Health website regarding issues of immediate concern
• Sharing educational resources and screening equipment for school use (e.g., hand washing education materials, tobacco education materials, blood borne pathogen materials, vision and hearing equipment, etc.)

The scope of practice within Calumet County Public Health does not allow for the delegation of nursing acts to school or day care personnel (e.g., insulin injection, tube feedings, dressing changes, catheterizations, etc.) or routine visits for the specific purpose of health promotion or consultation of an individual.