Both elementary and high schools have precautions in place and are working with parents on such issues as proper sanitation and keeping a sick child home.

None of the day schools contacted for this story have reported any confirmed cases of swine flu this semester.

Chana Goldstein, a nurse for six schools affiliated with the Associated Talmud Torahs, said that since the outbreak, she has engaged in "extensive teaching of proper hand-washing and hygiene. Hand sanitizer is available in all the classrooms and we are making sure there is soap in all the bathrooms." The schools she oversees are Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School, Seymour J. Abrams Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School, Yeshivas Shearis Yisroel/Veitzener Cheder, Arie Crown Hebrew Day School, Hillel Torah North Suburban Day School and Joan Dachs Bais Yaakov Elementary School.

In the schools located in Skokie, she said, representatives of the village's Board of Health will be giving out H1N1 vaccinations at school for any students who want to participate.

"I do a lot of education," Goldstein said, including teaching students to cough or sneeze into a tissue or their elbow. "There is a big emphasis on hygiene, and the teachers and secretaries are more aware that if a child is sick, they need to go home," she said. "And there is a lot of information sent home to the parents."

A few children had the flu in the spring, she said, but she did not have any reason to believe it was swine flu. No children have had swine flu-like symptoms recently, she said.

At Chicagoland Jewish High School in Deerfield, Inez Drazin, director of building and administrative services, said there was one confirmed case of swine flu in the spring, but none this semester. The school's plan involves "a lot of education of parents, students and staff, and constant hand washing." In addition, the school nurse sent a note home to parents emphasizing the importance of keeping children home when they are ill, she said.

"We wipe down everything with disinfectant twice a day, and we have Kleenex and Purell (hand sanitizer) in every room," she said. In the cafeteria, "once kids pick something up, it's theirs," she said. In addition, the school nurse carefully monitors absences and calls the home if students are out for more than a day. "The idea is to keep the school without people who are sick, either staff or students," Drazin said. This year, there was not been any flu at the school, she said.

In addition, personnel regularly check the CDC Web site and follow its recommendations. "You don't want to get crazy" over the precautions, she added. She said the school has asked the local health department about being a center for vaccinations, but so far the vaccine is being distributed only to preschools and sites where there has been a high incidence of flu.

At Solomon Schechter Day School, Linda Foster, interim head of school, said, "From the beginning of the school year, we have increased our communication to families, reminding them of the precautions." Children are constantly reminded to wash their hands and to cover their noses and mouths when sneezing or coughing, and "heavy-duty cleaning" includes every desktop and many other surfaces.

In addition, swine flu vaccinations will soon be offered on the school's Skokie campus, thanks to a collaboration with the village's health department. School personnel are hoping to do the same at the Northbrook site but have not been able to work the details out with the village, Foster said.

The school is also tracking all absences, she said. "If families don't call in and tell us what's going on with their child, we actively call them, so we can be on the alert in case we start getting cases" of swine flu. "We probably won't be able to avoid it altogether, but so far prevention has been good," she said.

That has also been true at Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School, where Elliot Cohen, director of operations, said that "we are trying to make everyone aware of what they should and should not be doing. We have a protocol of maintenance and using disinfectant, with the most common areas cleaned on a twice-daily basis."

The school is also tracking absences and asking families that if their child has a fever, the child should be kept home for 24 hours after the fever is gone. "We encourage good sanitizing practices - washing hands, especially in preschool and the younger grades," Cohen said. "We teach kids when they should wash their hands and how to wash their hands, and to always cough and sneeze into their elbow."

The school makes no recommendations on whether parents should have their children vaccinated, he said, but suggests that "parents do their own research and find out if the vaccine is right for them or not. We are not necessarily recommending that they get or not get the vaccine."

At Ida Crown Jewish Academy, Rabbi Leonard Matanky, dean of the school, said, "Our main thing is to be vigilant. We have been in discussions with doctors and the Chicago Board of Health and are following their recommendations. Our general policy is to always seek out the experts and try our best to follow their recommendations."

That policy has so far paid off, he said, as no one at the school has come down with the virus.