Mapping School Absenteeism for Managing H1N1 Influenza Outbreak

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Technology Services—Geographic Information System (DTS-GIS) team, in cooperation with the County’s Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Services, developed an ArcGIS based Mapping School Absenteeism Application to provide the Public Health Emergency Planning and Response team from the DHHS with useful geographic and attribute data information and to improve Public Health staff efficiency for obtaining information about absenteeism in schools and student exclusions due to flu-like symptoms in school during the H1N1 influenza pandemic. The mapping School Absenteeism Application functionality includes geographical data display and information from Public Health Services databases, including School Service Areas, High School Clusters, all school locations, number of excluded students from the school due to flu-like symptoms, and percentages of individual school absences. Staff needs only to call up across the county, provide delineations by school enrollment area, and update the percent absent for each reporting school.