Introduction

Creating Asthma Friendly Schools

This website provides recommendations and resources for seven essential goals for creating asthma friendly schools. The aim is to create a team approach that draws on the knowledge, skills and commitment of everyone involved in the school environment regardless of their medical background.

The information and recommendations provided will help you develop and maintain an asthma friendly environment for your school.   Creating and maintaining an asthma friendly school shows that your school is responsive to the needs of children with asthma.  

We have provided specific activities for the following roles or members of the school environment:

Asthma and Schools

During the school year, children spend about 40% of their wakeful hours at school.   Recognition of asthma and the impact it has on children in school is important. School personnel play an important role in helping students with asthma manage the condition at school.

By creating asthma friendly schools you can work towards successfully:

• Establishing a supportive learning environment for students with asthma.
• Reducing school absenteeism.
• Reducing disruption in the classroom.
• Providing the necessary support in the event of worsening asthma or emergency.
• Achieving full participation in school related activities including physical activity.
• Improving communication between members of the school environment.
• Assisting students to become life long successful managers of their asthma.

7 Essential Goals for Creating Asthma Friendly Schools:

1. Establish a process to identify students with asthma.
2. Allow students with asthma easy access to inhalers.
3. Establish a school-wide process for handling worsening asthma.
4. Identify and reduce common asthma triggers within the school environment.
5. Encourage students with asthma to participate in school activities to the best of their abilities.
6. Provide school personnel, parents and the student body opportunities to gain a general understanding of asthma.
7. Collaborate with families, health care professionals and school personnel to create asthma friendly schools.

The Public Health School Asthma (Pilot) Project: An Ontario Initiative

The Creating Asthma Friendly Schools Resource Kit  was developed to supplement the Public Health School Asthma  Project, which is part of the groundbreaking Asthma Plan of Action funded by the Government of Ontario. The project involves collaboration between community agencies, school boards, school personnel, a university, health care professionals, public health units, and children with asthma and their parents/guardians.

A three year Public Health School Asthma Pilot Project involved the five Ontario regions of Durham, Halton, Hamilton, Peel, and Sudbury. The overall goal of the pilot project was to create asthma friendly and supportive school environments that enable children with asthma to be successful managers of their asthma thereby reducing school absenteeism, days of interrupted activity and health services use. This goal has served as a guide for all of the project's subsequent activities.  It was achieved through the implementation of the Creating Asthma Friendly School Resource Kit and the provision of a school-based asthma education program, "Roaring Adventures of Puff" to students with asthma by public health nurses.  

The Public Health School Asthma Pilot Project resulted in significant improvements at the level of the school and of the individual. Benefits experienced included improving the asthma friendliness and supportiveness of school environments, which created a safe place for students with asthma, as well as, an environment that facilitated successful self management, personal growth and integration into school life. Overall this project resulted in reductions in the number of missed school days due to asthma, the number of days of interrupted physical activity due to asthma, and the number of urgent health care visits due to asthma. As a result of the project’s interventions, students experienced improvements in their overall quality of life.