WOODBRIDGE, Va. - As swine flu moves across our region its taking a big toll on some area schools. Local districts say they're feeling the effects as the number of absent students continues to rise.

One school health official put it this way, unless you've been living in a closet for the last two weeks you've been exposed to H1N1. The virus is in schools and while some schools have seen very few sick kids, other schools are being hit hard.

Eight-year-old Ashley Matta is having a rough week. Her mother quarantined her at home after she came down with H1N1 over the weekend.

"I was shocked. I had no idea it was in the area, apparently no one else did either," said Heather Matta.

Just up the street at Occoquan Elementary School, 17 percent of students were absent Friday. That number is down from 20 percent earlier this week.

Ashley's mother asked the Prince William County (web | news) School District to warn other parents. She says no letter went out.

"The kids could be bring this home to families with elderly, families with babies and the parents aren't knowing this, they don't know it's in the school first of all and that's very dangerous," stated Matta.

Neighbor Sarah Philiposian wants better communication from the district. With a 23-month-old son at home, she pulled her older children out of school when Ashley got sick just in case.

"I was upset, extremely upset because no one wanted to give me any information," stated Philiposian.

The district has put signs up in every bathroom to remind people to wash their hands and cover coughs, is posting daily flu updates online, but says only about a third of schools have sent letters home when absences topped 10 percent. CLICK HERE to see the online flu updates.

In addition to current efforts to keep parents informed about the H1N1 situation at Prince William County Schools, before this outbreak the school sent an H1N1 back-to-school letter to all parents from the superintendent and local health director. There were also system-wide communications sent out in the spring when the district had the first case of H1N1 during the last school year.

Prince William County Public Schools Spokesman Ken Blackstone said, "It's very much a feel of the communicate as when to inform people, the balance of not wanting to alarm people."

In fact, nearly every area school district is reporting higher than average student absences likely due in part to H1N1. Montgomery and Prince William are seeing roughly double their average while districts like Fairfax have seen only a slight increase.

Prince George's schools report observing increased levels of influenza type symptoms.

Only D.C. schools report no spike in absences.

The numbers mean Ashley isn't the only kid in town being kept closed in at home. 

The best advice you can take is to wash your hands, cover your coughs and if your child is sick, then keep them at home.

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