As stewards of school environments, facility managers and procurement professionals play a crucial role in ensuring the well-being of students, staff, and faculty. The battle against germs and infections is ongoing, especially within educational institutions, which is why it is important for facilities and procurement departments to prioritize hygiene and budget-conscious choices. With the support of Kimberly-Clark Professional, OMNIA Partners aims to offer practical solutions that add value and simplify decision-making for customers in challenging environments. Keep reading to uncover the hygiene issues plaguing educational systems, and how Kimberly-Clark can provide a safe, effective and budget-friendly solution, available through OMNIA Partners.
Hygiene Challenges Plaguing Schools
Germ Transmission & Financial Strain
Schools are vital to American society, providing a safe environment for children to learn and socialize. However, students, staff and surfaces are all vectors for germ transmission, placing schools under enormous pressure to prevent infections. Illnesses can also place a financial burden on schools that rely on attendance-based funding models or federal money, such as Title 1 funding, if they fail to meet attendance or academic benchmarks.1 For example, the Keller district in Texas estimates a $2.4 million loss for every percentage-point decrease in average daily attendance.2
Academic Disruptions, Staff Shortages & More
Illnesses carry additional burdens such as academic disruption, increased cleaning efforts, staff shortages, and heightened anxiety. Gastro-intestinal illnesses like norovirus can significantly impact educational environments. In February 2024, a norovirus outbreak in an Alabama elementary school caused 773 of the school’s 974 students to be absent, leading to a week-long closure.3 The CDC notes that norovirus outbreaks frequently occur in schools, childcare centers, colleges, and universities. Between 2009-2021, there were 2,063 reported norovirus outbreaks in educational institutions, leading to 116,360 illnesses.5
Norovirus: A Persistent Threat in Education Systems
Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that spreads through contact of an infected individual, causing gastrointestinal illnesses. Preventing its spread involves limiting exposure, practicing good hand hygiene, and increasing surface disinfection efforts. However, these measures can be challenging to implement due to factors like presenteeism, lack of hand hygiene facilities, and insufficient knowledge or resources for effective surface disinfection.
Presenteeism: Sick children and staff may attend school due to lack of childcare or paid leave options.10, 11 There may also be a lack of understanding from parents or caregivers regarding when to keep a child home.11
Hand Hygiene: Not every classroom is equipped with a sink and hand-washing supplies, and bathroom access is often controlled. Schools may struggle to restock supplies regularly or face poor behavior in restrooms that cause outages of key hygiene supplies. Hand washing is crucial in the fight against norovirus, as hand sanitizer is not approved by the FDA to kill it. 9, 12
Surface Disinfection: Increasing surface disinfection efforts can be difficult due to the overwhelming number of disinfectants available and their varying costs. Many decision-makers may not realize that some germs, like norovirus, are harder to kill than others.13 Effective disinfectants for tougher germs can be expensive or require special protective equipment, which may not be feasible for schools. Additionally, schools often rely on parent donations for disinfectant wipes, which may not always be effective or safe. Many consumer wipes require thorough hand washing or gloves after use, posing further challenges for schools.
