Area school districts haven’t had many issues with the flu this school year.

Knoxville Community School District believes they’ve been able to deal better with the flu this year thanks in part to better educating students about the disease.
School nurse Stacy Murphy says there were some higher rates of absenteeism among students before the Christmas break, including one school needing to be reported to Public Health because it had a rate over 10 percent. However, it’s not fully known if the higher absentee rates have been due to the flu.
Pleasantville schools say flu hasn’t been an issue with just two cases before the winter break. Both Pella and Pella Christian say their absentee numbers have been well below the mandatory reporting rate in the state.
Murphy says the number of absent students has gone down since the holiday break. She believes their numbers could have been higher, saying a flu shot day at schools through the Department of Public Health and more education on the flu than previous years helped keep those numbers down. Murphy says they plan to continue to educate students about the flu in future school years.