Both the catholic and public school boards have spent the summer making sure schools are ready for the second wave of H1N1.
School starts Thursday and both boards says schools are prepared.
"We're not just cleaning for cleanliness sake but also attacking bacteria. We're also making sure we have procedures in place to monitor staff absences and student absences and dramatic increases in those," says Ted Flitton, a spokesperson for the Calgary Board of Education (CBE).
"We're also preparing information to send home to parents about influenza that contains information about proper hand washing techniques and what to do if you think your child has influenza," says Janet Sutherland from the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD).
Sutherland says all catholic schools will also have hand sanitizer stations in each classroom if there isn't already a sink with soap.
The Calgary Board of Education has set up a resource centre so teachers can turn H1N1 prevention into an educational experience. "Teachers can access lots of great information from various sites including the Center for Disease Control and the Public Health Agency of Canada," says Flitton.
The preparation is helping to ease the minds of parents.
Alayne Durand says her son's school has a history of good hygiene so she's not really concerned about swine flu. "I know last year the teacher was very strict on hygiene in the classroom so she implemented hand washing before snack, she was very strict."
Both the CBE and CCSD say they will continue to take their lead from Alberta and Canadian health authorities.
For more information about how each board plans to handle swine flu, click on the links to the right.
