Chicago: Building a Foundation at Chicago Public Schools

Chicago has an asthma epidemic; this has been the case for many years. Those that are impacted the most in Chicago are children in underserved communities and most of those children attend our schools. We are the 3rd largest district in the country and have many challenges that we must face in order to meet the needs of our students. We decided as a district and with our community partners that in order to best meet those needs we had to establish a foundation of knowledge and a plan for sustainability that has never before existed. We worked with our district nurses, community health care providers, and community partners to develop and implement an asthma management educational program that would provide the basic and most relevant information to all of our district clinicians. These clinicians include: nurses, social workers, psychologist, occupational therapists, physical therapist, and speech therapist.

In April 2009, training for school nurses began and included a minimum of 3 hours of professional development on asthma impact, treatment (NHLBI guidelines), and management in a school setting. This training was provided by La Rabida Children’s Hospital and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. In addition, 29 of our school nurses were selected to attend the Asthma Educator Certification Training in order to establish a cadre of nurse asthma experts in our district that will help to guide and inform ongoing educational initiatives and training. All other clinicians have been offered a minimum of 1.5 - 2 hour educational session on asthma in addition to information on the social emotional impact that asthma has on children. This training was provided by the Asthma Project Manager in collaboration with Licensed Clinical Social Workers. Due to demand we also extended our training to physical education instructors and coaches. We focused on issues of obesity and asthma and best practices for including children with asthma in physical activity. This training was provided by the Asthma Project Manager in collaboration with Respiratory Health Association and the Chicago Park District’s Wellness Specialist.

To date the Chicago Public School’s Asthma Management Project has trained:

• 143 PE Teachers & Coaches
• 212 School Nurses (Clinical Asthma Training)
• 29 School Nurses (Asthma Educator Certification Training)
• 165 School Psychologist
• 130 School Occupational Therapist & Physical Therapist
• 341 School Social Workers
• 1,020 Clinicians

We will continue to implement these trainings; we still have many clinicians to reach. We are also focusing our efforts on the development and accessibility of online training and educational material for our district in order to maximize our reach to school personnel such as teachers, custodians, and building engineers in addition to the in person trainings that many attend through our community partners.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Lilliana DeSantiago, MSW
Chicago Public Schools
ladesantiago@cps.k12.il.us
http://www.cps.edu/