Why Does the Same Classroom Keep Sending Kids Home Sick?

About This Episode

When the same classroom keeps sending kids home, the instinct is more disinfectant. The evidence points somewhere else. In this episode, host Eliot Wood walks through where germs actually sit in a classroom, when the CDC says to clean and when to disinfect, what a new study of more than forty-five schools and an older classroom trial found about stomach bugs and colds, the math behind a custodian's night shift, the cleaning products that can affect workers' breathing, and what an ATP swab can and can't tell you. Free download: The School Illness Playbook for Facilities Teams. A nightly touch-point routine, a stomach-bug outbreak plan for the first 48 hours, how to choose and use a disinfectant, a workload check and a room-by-room tracker. Every line sourced. Find it in Downloads on this page (free account required). Chapters 0:00 Why the same classroom keeps getting sick 0:48 Clean or disinfect? 2:15 Where the germs actually are 3:07 What the research found 5:56 The math behind the night shift 7:34 When the cleaner is part of the problem 9:35 How you know it worked The Envirolyte Learning Academy is educational. Follow your product labels and the rules that apply to your school.

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What You’ll Learn

• Tell when a classroom surface needs cleaning and when it needs disinfecting, using CDC guidance.
• Find the touch points where germs actually build up in a classroom.
• Read what school studies found about stomach bugs and colds, and what they could not prove.
• Check whether a custodian's night shift has enough time for the rooms assigned.
• Know what an ATP swab can and can't tell you about a cleaned surface.