Tips for School Administration

• Have an Asthma Management Plan in your school. This plan should include policies on medication usage as well as emergency procedures for school staff when a student has an asthma episode. This plan should also include collecting individual asthma action plans for each student. An asthma action plan is an individual management plan for each student with asthma which provides information on the student's asthma including medical information, asthma triggers, emergency procedures, and contact numbers.
• Provide school-based asthma education programs for students with asthma.
• Enforce no-smoking policies in the school and on school grounds. This policy should include visitors even during off hours.
• Encourage polices that do not allow animals in school.
• Require staff to wear non-latex gloves when preparing foods or treating students medically.
• Schedule painting and major building maintenance or renovations during times when school is not in session.
• Find out how asthma friendly your school is with a tool from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/lung/
  asthma/friendhi.htm

Adapted from Managing Asthma: A Guide for Schools. National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes (NHLBI), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Fund for the Improvement and Reform of Schools and Teaching, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education. September 1991. NIH Publication No. 91-2650.

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