Communicating with Parents During an Outbreak

• Many schools prefer to work with local public health or the Minnesota Department of Health in sending outbreak communication to parents.
• Local and state public health officials will help craft the communication messages; letters from the school to parents should be reviewed by local and state public health officials to ensure accuracy and completeness of the message.
• Communications with parents may need to be conducted by the school or district administration (depending on the scope of the problem), and should include assistance from local and state public health officials.
• The content of such communications can be extremely variable, depending on the situation.
• One possible request may be for parents of recently ill children to call the local or state health department at a given number.
• During the initial stages of the investigation, the agent causing the outbreak is often unknown. However, regardless of the agent, the prevention measures outlined above should be stressed in communications to staff and parents. When the agent is identified, local or state public health officials will provide fact sheets and/or other information about the agent to the school.

Sample letters to parents

• Letters from the school to parents should be reviewed by local and state public health officials to ensure accuracy and completeness of the message.
• The parent letters contained in this tool kit are only meant as a sample of letters which have recently been sent. They are not implied to be the actual letters that you would use in the event of an outbreak.
  • Sample parent letter: During a Gastrointestinal Outbreak (Word)