Plan to Educate School Personnel on AIDS Expected

In a recommendation that could have a significant impact on how school districts handle students with AIDS, federal health officials are expected to urge that AIDS education be given to members of local school boards, parent-teacher organizations, school administrators and other school personnel nationwide, The Times has learned.

“Everyone needs to know about AIDS so he or she can respond appropriately, but this is nowhere more true than in a school system,” said Dr. Gary Noble, the director of AIDS programs for the federal Centers for Disease Control. He added: “Discrimination is insidious wherever it occurs, but it’s particularly unfortunate when children are the subjects.”

The recommendation is contained in a draft of proposed guidelines for educating children about AIDS, a copy of which was obtained by The Times. The guidelines were written by CDC in consultation with 10 national health and education organizations, including the National School Boards Assn., the American Assn. of School Administrators and the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. The guidelines are scheduled to be released Jan. 28.

Predict Far-Reaching Impact

Public Health Service officials and others involved in AIDS activities said Thursday that such a recommendation could have a far-reaching effect on the future handling of schoolchildren with AIDS.

“This should make a difference in the way people behave--and we look forward to that day with enthusiasm,” said Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.

Dr. John Petracciani, deputy AIDS coordinator for the Public Health Service, agreed.

“There is no doubt about the value of educating school personnel,” he said. “The value of those educational efforts just cannot be overstated.”

The guidelines recommend that school administrators and representatives from school boards and parents groups, in addition to all school personnel, receive general AIDS education involving “the nature of the epidemic and the means to control its spread,” as well as information regarding school health education programs and school policies related to students and staff who may be infected. Further, the guidelines say, “a team of school personnel responsible for teaching about AIDS should receive more specific training about AIDS education.”

Continuing AIDS Education

The guidelines stress that all school personnel, “especially those who teach about AIDS,” should receive continuing education about AIDS “to assure that they have the most current information.” The report asks state and local officials to “assure that such in-service training is made available to all schools in the state as soon as possible. . . . “

Nan Hunter, an attorney with the ACLU, said that there have been about a dozen lawsuits across the country challenging policies that forbid children with AIDS from attending classes. She praised the CDC proposal, saying that “such training is absolutely crucial” to the way in which school administrators make decisions about children with AIDS.

She cited the example of Ryan White, the Indiana teen-ager with AIDS who was banned from his Kokomo, school in 1985, but who last fall was warmly welcomed into a new school in Cicero, Ind.

“The enormous support he received in his second school didn’t just happen,” Hunter said. “There was a considerable amount of time and effort, supported by the state, that went into educating school officials and other personnel before he arrived.”

‘Not a Lot of Real Concern’

In fact, the principal of the Cicero school, Anthony Cook, said after White’s arrival that he believed “the difference has been time and education. Our people have educated themselves to the point where there’s not a lot of real concern about Ryan entering our school.”

Despite repeated statements from federal and other public health officials that children with AIDS pose no risk to other children in the classroom, the response of local school districts to pupils with AIDS has varied around the country. It has ranged from quiet acceptance in some communities, to angry boycotts organized by parents and suspension of the student in others. The most extreme reaction occurred last fall in Arcadia, Fla., with an arson attack on the home of three brothers infected with the AIDS virus who wished to remain in school. They subsequently left the community.

Secretary Writes Letter

Public Health Service spokesman Jim Brown said that Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen and Assistant Secretary for Health Robert E. Windom both have written personal letters to school administrators with successful education programs to commend them for “doing the right thing.”

As of Monday, there were 778 reported cases of AIDS among children under the age of 13 in this country and 213 among those between 13 and 19. Most of these children contracted AIDS through contaminated blood or blood products or from infected mothers.