Fears over the spread of swine fl u have yet to translate into higher absentee rates at school districts across the Capital Region.

Prior to the start of the fall semester, nearly all districts sent informational letters to parents urging them to keep any student with flu-like symptoms from attending classes. But after more than a month of classes, most districts are reporting no abnormal change in the rate of absenteeism.

For instance, in the Scotia-Glenville school district, absenteeism increased from 1.7 percent of the enrollment during the first week of classes and then leveled off at 3.5 percent during the following week.

Both figures are fairly consistent with what Scotia-Glenville has seen during previous years and came as a bit of a surprise to district officials, who were expecting a greater degree of absenteeism as both the H1N1 virus and seasonal influenza spread.

“We thought we’d see numbers like 10 and 15 percent, but that hasn’t happened yet,” said Bob Hanlon, a spokesman for the district.

East Greenbush superintendent Angela Guptill acknowledged an uptick in “flu-like illnesses” among students in a letter she sent to parents Wednesday. However, she stressed that the cases, which were not quantified in the letter, appear to be related to seasonal influenza and not the H1N1 virus.

Similarly, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Superintendent Jim Schultz sent a letter to parents indicating that the district is seeing a rise in absences resulting from students with flu-like symptoms, including some that had been diagnosed with swine fl u. It was unclear whether the number of absences were above normal.

“Just as last year we had many students absent with [influenza-like illnesses] in mid-October; we are now experiencing student absenteeism with flu symptoms,” he stated in the letter. “A handful of these cases have been diagnosed by family doctors as being H1N1 fl u.”

Attempts to reach officials from both the East Greenbush and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school districts were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Some districts saw a significant increase in student absences earlier this month but have since seen numbers return to normal. At the Mohonasen district in Rotterdam, Superintendent Kathleen Spring said there were a rash of absences at both the middle and high school last week.

“But since last Thursday, we’ve definitely seen that continue to go down,” she said Tuesday. “We’re back to normal levels.”

Schalmont also had a spate of absences at the middle school during the third week of school. Superintendent Valerie Kelsey said more than 50 students were absent at the peak.
“This week, we’re seeing nothing,” she said.

Schalmont, like all districts in Schenectady County, is now reporting levels of absenteeism to the state Department of Health. In addition to student absences, school officials are also reporting instances of all staff absences so that any irregularity can be gauged.

Many other districts reported nothing out of the ordinary. School offi - cials from Schenectady, Duanesburg, Shenendehowa and Albany reported seeing no change in absentee levels.

“Across the board, we have not seen any change in attendance,” said Karen Corona, a spokeswoman with the Schenectady school district.

Area colleges, however, are seeing an increase of students reporting flu-like symptoms, with some of those cases being confirmed as swine flu. Siena College in Loudonville reported its first confirmed case of the H1N1 virus in its student population Wednesday.

Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs has seen more than three dozen suspected influenza cases, with nine reported last week.

But the apparent fear over the H1N1 virus has prompted a record number of students to seek the seasonal fl u vaccine. Patricia Bosen, Skidmore’s clinical director, said the college could end up using all 450 flu shots it ordered this fall.

“This year we have given an average of 30 shots per day to students and that number has not slowed down at all,” she said. “Typically, there are only a total of 50 to 60 students receiving flu shots any given year, so this is truly an unusual season.”