Are schools prepared for an outbreak of swine flu? Do they have an action plan for handling one or two cases – or more? At what point will they close? If they close how will students be taught?

Will parents be required to vaccinate their children when a vaccine arrives? Will there be enough of the vaccine for all?

Then what about teachers? Suppose a third of teachers are out sick with swine flu, will the school close? This term marks the first time that all substitute teachers by law, must have a teaching certificate. This means the pool of stand-ins is smaller than it's ever been.

These are just a handful of the multitude of questions that I sought answers to last week so that parents would know where they stand in terms of swine flu during the school year. But the response was lackluster. The Health Department refused to respond saying it would be holding a press conference on the topic tomorrow. And the Ministry of Education while admitting it had a plan, remained tight lipped on the contents wanting to explain it first to school principals.

So hopefully sometime tomorrow you'll have the answers to all the questions at the start of this article. But those are the answers for the Government schools. Private schools are a separate matter.

I made contact with Warwick Academy, Bermuda Institute (BI), Saltus, Somersfield Academy, Mount Saint Agnes Academy (MSA), Bermuda High School for Girls (BHS) and a few private nursery schools, and asked them if they had a swine flu plan.

I made no headway with any of the nursery schools I contacted and Somersfield Academy did not respond.

BHS, BI, MSA and Warwick Academy said they all had plans. Saltus said it was still working on one.

Of all the plans I saw, BHS had the most comprehensive with a plan that detailed how sick children would be handled in the school, when they would be allowed to return, when the school might close, how children would keep abreast of their studies while physically away from school (see insert).

Principal Linda Parker said hand sanitisers had been placed in each classroom and at several locations throughout the school. She said BHS would be stressing the importance of personal hygiene in the spread of illness, and that teachers and students, would be urged to regularly wash their hands.

"Everyone will be instructed not to touch their mouth, nose or eyes, when possible, as this could help reduce their risk of getting the virus," she said.

"I will work closely with the School Nurse to address any suspected or confirmed cases of H1N1 virus and will take guidance from the Ministry of Health on all aspects of dealing with the disease," she added.

Bermuda Institute Facilities Manager, Newbold Smith said personal hygiene was also being stressed at BI. In his Campus Beautification class he said students were being educated on how communicable diseases are spread. These students are then being used in what Mr. Smith called 'little swat teams' whose responsibility it is to police the school and report any problem areas. "They will make sure the hand sanitiser dispensers in the bathrooms are not empty," he said. But while students will be encouraged to use good hygiene, the school has not put any procedure in place for what to do when a child gets sick. In fact BI does not have its own school nurse. He said Government nurses attend the school a few times a week.

He said a log would be kept of all children and their ailments, enabling the administration to quickly gauge the extent of any problem should it arise. And he said he would raise the issue of adopting a procedure for swine flu at a management seminar he will be attending in New York on Friday. "As an Adventist school there may be procedures we should be following," he said.

Mr. Smith admitted that the school has not looked at contingencies like closing if there's high absenteeism by students or teachers nor whether parents would be urged or required to have their children vaccinated.

He said the Health Department had not given any direction but that they would be presenting to a school assembly sometime this week.

Last FridayWarwick Academy posted a fact sheet on swine flu on its website. Principal Maggie McCorkell said parents with concerns would be directed to the site. While the information was informative about the nature of the virus, it gave no plan of how the school will address actual cases.

A health care worker sent me a copy of the last update from the Ministry of Health, on swine flu. The update was sent to schools that requested it. It was dated April 28, 2009 and listed symptoms, how to stem the spread of the disease and the fact that a vaccine was not yet available.