Bird flu plan sent to schools
Proposal: Buildings would close, become hospitals as education for students would continue at home, BY MICHAEL D. CLARK

Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky schools are being asked to prepare crisis plans in case the deadly avian flu now spreading overseas mutates - as some medical experts predict - and becomes contagious among humans.

Last month the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a proposed crisis plan for schools across America to deal with a pandemic flu, and Friday officials from the Ohio School Boards Association made the preliminary plan available to the state's 614 school districts via the association's Web site.

The Kentucky School Boards Association also recently posted the same plan on its Web site for that state's 176 school districts.

Though rare, in the past global flu pandemics have killed millions.

For the first time school officials nationwide are being asked to begin putting into place emergency procedures that include closing schools; converting schools into hospitals; and continuing instruction via mail, the internet, television or radio.