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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2001

News Release

NEA Launches Web Site to Meet Health Need

Washington, D.C. - Asthma accounts for at least 10 million missed school days each year for children in grades K-12. It is the most common chronic childhood disease, afflicts one in 13 children, and represents the leading cause of child hospitalizations.

To meet the growing need for school employees to know how to manage the disease, the National Education Association's Health Information Network (NEA HIN) has launched a new website, www.asthmaandschools.org featuring comprehensive asthma resources, guidance, and advice. The site is designed to help school staff, families of children who have asthma, recreation supervisors, child care providers, coaches, and anyone else who regularly interacts with children.

"Asthma has reached epidemic proportions, making it absolutely critical for anyone who works at a school to know how to manage it," said Bob Chase, president of the NEA.

Produced under a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and developed by NEA's Health Information Network, the asthma website allows individuals and organizations to submit further information about asthma-related resources - directly on the website, www.asthmaandschools.org.

The new site refers visitors to:

• fact sheets about how to identify an asthma flare up
• a searchable database of resources
• school-based asthma educational programs
• materials about asthma in different languages
• tips on how to create an asthma action plan for your school

HIN provides school-based health and safety information to the NEA's 2.6 million educational employees and the more than 30 million students they serve. HIN distributes health information through the NEA's 53 state/territory affiliates as well as 13,500 local education associations.

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.