Four Steps for Creating an Asthma-Friendly School

Asthma is one of the main illness-related reasons that students miss school accounting for more than 13.8 million lost school days each year. Students and school personnel face a host of issues directly related to asthma – potential asthma emergencies, absenteeism, decreased student and teacher productivity, increased visits to the school health office, access to life-saving emergency medications, and indoor and outdoor air quality to name a few. Asthma management in schools requires a comprehensive approach that includes improving indoor air quality and improving a student’s access to asthma medicine throughout the school day.
The American Lung Association's Four Steps for Creating an Asthma-Friendly School is a series of short interactive modules designed to help schools and school districts create a safe and healthy learning environment for students with asthma.
Together these modules will teach participants to:
- Create an asthma management plan
- Maximize school health services to support policies and practices for students with asthma
- Educate school personnel, students and families in asthma
- Provide a healthy school environment
- Manage physical education and activity for students with asthma
In this course, you will learn how to create a comprehensive asthma management plan using the Asthma-Friendly Schools Initiative Toolkit.