Instructional Materials for School Staff
It is important to provide clear and concise instructions for school staff. Try to limit information to a small bulleted list of no more than one page and visuals (e.g. picture of the consent form) can be helpful. The following are templates for communication with school staff and for school staff to use when communicating with families.
Communication to School Staff
This template can be used by school leadership to explain the SLIV program to staff and teachers. Our evaluation demonstrated that school engagement and program support were correlated with participation. We believe the more staff and teachers know about the benefits of the program and how it will work on the day of vaccination, the more likely they will be enthusiastic to distribute and collect consent forms.
Communication to Parents/Guardians
These templates can be used by school leadership to explain the SLIV program to parents and guardians. They include both information about program logistics as well as the supportive research behind conducting SLIV programs.
School Staff Instructions
This template can be used to inform the school designated point of contact and other front office staff about how to distribute and collect consent forms. Send instructions electronically or in hard copy with the consent forms.
Teacher Instructions
This template can be used to inform teachers about their role in the program. Send instructions electronically and/or in hard copy with the consent forms. Another option is to print the instructions on the back of consent form collection envelopes (see above).
Distributing Materials to Schools
Making sure that schools receive all the materials needed to advertise the program and collect consents from students is crucial to participation. We ultimately arrived at the process of sending a box of all promotional materials and consents together 3-4 weeks prior to the scheduled vaccination day using a courier coordinated by our contracted printer. We considered sending materials with school registration packets but the deadline for materials was well before we were able to finalize documents each year. Below are some considerations:
- Work with a printing company that can print and bundle materials (consent forms, posters, collection envelopes, collection boxes, etc.). Consider contacting the printing company used by the school district if applicable.
- Mailing materials to schools can be challenging—they receive a lot of packages and they can get lost. Consider using a courier if feasible and ask for a signature upon receipt so that you know who received the boxes. Make sure any delivery happens on a day/time the school is open.
- If you do not use a courier, consider applying a large sticker on the box to help identify it (for example, we used a large Shoo the Flu branded sticker that said “Please Open Now—time sensitive materials inside”)
- We highly recommend you call each school to confirm receipt of the materials and to encourage quick consent distribution—this is a great task for volunteers/interns.