SILVER SPRING, Md. - A spike in the number of absences at a number of Montgomery County (web | news) Schools has raised concerns about swine flu.

A total of 38 Montgomery County schools reported absentee rates of at least 16 percent on Monday, meaning thousands of students called out sick. The schools impacted the most are Montgomery Knolls Elementary, Sequoia Elementary, Waters Landing Elementary and Brown Station Elementary School.

While Sarah Bergfalk's six-year-old daughter doesn't have swine flu yet, she also stayed at home, just in case.

"And I just came from the pharmacy at CVS and there were a lot of moms in line, saying they kept their kids home," shared Bergfalk.

Montgomery County Schools are following the Centers for Disease Control guidelines: schools will only close if they can't continue to function.
At this point, school officials say they're functioning just fine and are relying on parents to make the call.

"If I found out that maybe like 15 to 20 percent of her class were home, I would just as a precaution keep her home for a couple days," said parent Melinda Jabbie.

Health experts are reminding parents of the warning signs of the H1N1 virus.

"There are things parents should look for when their children have the flu," said Dr. Richard Besser. "If they're getting better and then they start to get worse and they have a high fever after they're improving. That's a time to go see your doctor."

Health experts also say if children are having trouble breathing or are blue around the lips they should see a doctor right away, especially if they have an underlying medical condition.

"I've heard people have really bad sickness at our school. A lot of kids have been missing for a lot of days," said student Carmen Mejia.

Still, Montgomery County Schools remain open. They are just the emptiest they have been all year.

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