{"doi":"10.3389/fpubh.2023.1285453","title":"Development of a community-informed communication toolkit to prevent spread of viral illness in schools, including SARS-COV-2","abstract":"Introduction: Schools were uniquely impacted during the COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) pandemic. We sought to elucidate how parents/guardians of elementary and middle school students in Maryland navigated the return to in-person school following remote instruction. We also sought to understand how they perceived communication about school-based COVID-19 mitigation strategies and their preferences for the content and format of public health communication about COVID-19 mitigation in schools. Methods: We engaged a community advisory board comprised of key partners and implemented a survey and focus groups. Results: Results indicated that parents/guardians wanted clearer communication about COVID-19 mitigation policies in schools and were experiencing fatigue and confusion. These insights informed the development of a tailorable communication toolkit. The toolkit was designed to (1) inform parents/guardians about the importance and effectiveness of mitigation strategies for preventing viral spread to keep children in school, (2) promote a sense of community and support, and (3) help school communication teams effectively communicate information about mitigation strategies being implemented. Discussion: We describe a process for leveraging schools as a trusted messenger, engaging school communities in the development of communication messages, and utilizing a tailorable communication toolkit in the context of shifting public health guidance and local needs. The toolkit development and dissemination process offers a model for targeting public health messaging to parents/guardians in school settings.","journal":"Frontiers in Public Health","year":2023,"id":381255,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9569,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1147243,"name":"Gabriela V. Calderon","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1076006,"name":"Lauren M. Klein","orcid":"0000-0002-2414-9331","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1022669,"name":"June Wang","orcid":"0000-0003-2165-4137","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1023470,"name":"Janny Dinh","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1147244,"name":"Tina Suliman","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":415876,"name":"Erin R. Hager","orcid":"0000-0002-5499-2952","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1022671,"name":"Lorece V. Edwards","orcid":"0000-0003-3713-7425","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":767245,"name":"Megan E. Collins","orcid":"0000-0003-2067-0848","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":791803,"name":"Sara B. Johnson","orcid":"0000-0003-4532-1847","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1147242,"name":"August Summers","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":17,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:17:08.831117Z","pmid":"37954051","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}