Joe, Jake, Larry, Garet, Robyn

Offering an Asthma Management Class

Narrative
We are a rural school located in the Sauk Prairie school district. Our district information includes an
enrollment of 2,766 students, a predominantly white district with whites at 85.6%, Hispanic at 10.4%,
Blacks at 1.5%, Asian at 1.6%, and American Indian at 1.0%. There are 12.7% students with disabilities,
31.1% are economically disadvantaged, and 5.6% are limited English proficient. The overall
accountability score and rating is 72.1. The student achievement score is 74.6/100, the student growth
score is 66.0/100, the closing gaps score is 59.0/100, the on-track and postsecondary readiness score is
88.7/100. The weakness that is most important for our school to improve on is offering asthma
management education to all students with asthma. Our plan is to assign a health teacher or other educator
to the position of Asthma Management course and offer it to all students that are interested. In the nation,
36,000 students are absent every day due to asthma related conditions. With this course we plan on
decreasing the number of students absent in our school district by providing the students, parents,
teachers, and community members with the proper education needed to prevent asthma absences.
Sources: dpi.wi.gov; aafa.org
Needs Assessment
The factors causing asthma related issues are local factories, dust, pesticides, second-hand smoke, and a
copious amount of pollen. Being in a rural area and near pollen is also a factor of there being asthma
related absences in our school district. The number of people with asthma continues to grow, 1 in 12
people (about 25 million) have asthma, which has increased from 1 in 14 in 2001. About 1 in 2 people
(about 12 milling people) with asthma had an asthma attack in 2008. Asthma cost the US about $56
billion in medical costs, lost school and work days, and early deaths in 2007. We need the School Asthma
Improvement Grant for Discretionary State/Federal Grant in order to have the funds necessary to offer
this course to our district to improve our asthma awareness and prevention as a community. The grant will
provide training four times a year specifically for educators. The course itself will be taught once a week
for the entire year. The need for webcams is also important to provide learning opportunities for everyone
and be able to live stream to students, educators, or community members that may not be able to attend
the course but would like to partake in it. Every class will be recorded to evaluate the teacher performance
to insure optimal education to all participants.
Source: cdc.gov;
Significance of Requested Funds
Our target population is any student, community member, or faculty member interested in learning more
about managing asthma. The improved or expanded service is the course on asthma management. The
local capacity to sustain positive outcomes is that the course will help reduce absences by educating
students and staff on asthma management. According to a study done in the article, Effects of educational
interventions for self management of asthma in children and adolescents: systematic review and metaanalysis(BMJ 2003), education in asthma was associated with improved lung function and self efficacy
and reduced absenteeism from school, number of days of restricted activity, and number of visits to an
emergency department. According to the cdc.gov website, people with asthma can prevent asthma attacks
if they are taught to use inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed daily long-term control medicines
correctly and to avoid asthma triggers. Triggers can include tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution,
and colds and flu. In 2008 less than half of people with asthma reported being taught how to avoid

triggers. For these reasons, our district needs the grant to improve our students health and
prevent the rise of asthma before it becomes an even bigger issue.
Source: BMJ2003;326:1308; cdc.gov