As children head back to school, health officials warn of the threat of spreading sickness.

It's back to school season, and the Washoe County School District has been preparing for students to be back in the classroom. 

"We recently instituted a lot of a lot of clubs or opportunities for students at schools," said Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Education, Don Angotti. "We really need to get students to school. We've successfully reduced our chronic absenteeism rate". 

With chronic absenteeism being a national school issue, WCSD is doing everything they can to continue to lower those numbers, whether it is in filling instructor positions, establishing more extra-curriculars, or focusing on keeping a healthy environment. 

As students all over Washoe County return to the classroom, they will experience new friends, new groups and new classrooms, all of which can be ground zero for sickness and outbreak. 

Jennifer Crane, MSN, RN and Student Health Services for WCSD believes we could see a sickness outbreak within the first month, and especially when the seasons change. She touched on the important responsibility of parents and guardians, 

"We ask that parents, if they see that their student isn't feeling well or they happen to get sick, to keep them home, and not to have them go to school so that we can prevent those outbreaks," she said. 

Efforts to continuously keep school environments clean are also happening, as a local elementary school, Alice Maxwell, has cleaning crews sanitizing high traffic and high touch areas regularly.

"We have a wonderful custodial staff that goes around and cleans desks and doorknobs and different things like that, high touch areas, where the children are touching so that we can prevent the spread," said Crane.

In addition to keeping students healthy, it is crucial students come to school healthy - with vaccination clinics occurring all throughout the week up until school starts.