Episode 609: Health Barriers to Learning Series: What is an Asthma-friendly School?

More than 12% of Georgia’s school-age children are affected by asthma. In the continuation of our Health Barriers to Learning series, we explore this often overlooked problem in our schools and learn how the creation of asthma-friendly spaces can improve student learning. Join us in conversation with Dr. Maisha Otway, principal at College Park Elementary, and Daija Norwood, fifth-grade teacher at High Point Elementary, to learn more about asthma-friendly practices.

TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Mengwasser: Hello educators and education administrators. Thank you for listening to the platform for Georgia's Teachers Classroom Conversations, a place where you can share and learn. As always, our podcast is a creative collaboration between the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Public Broadcasting. It's Ashley again, your host. If I'm panting more than usual, it's only my enthusiasm to promote student health and wellness. Today's topic is one in a series about health barriers to learning. I love suspense, so let's build some. There are many oxygen-infused expressions that hinge on our singular critical need for air while you wait with bated breath. That's from Shakespeare's 1605 Merchant of Venice. Let me breathe the breath of life, that's Genesis 2:7, the Bible, into our discussion. Today's episode features a health barrier to learning facing approximately 12% of school-age children in Georgia. That's more than one in 10. What is it? It's asthma. The grandfather of modern medicine, Hippocrates, is thought to have coined the term around 450 BCE, just a few years back. The word itself comes from the Greek word azine, meaning to pant or exhale with an open mouth. It was first used in Homer's The Iliad, actually, to describe a short breath in case anyone's doing some light reading. Don't hold your breath for this problem to evaporate into thin air. Medically, asthma is caused by an interaction between various genes and environmental factors. Once it's detected, it doesn't dissipate like a cold would. Student asthma must be managed for learning to take place. There must be a solution. Luckily there is the Georgia Department of Public Health's Asthma Friendly Schools program. The Asthma Friendly Schools toolkit provides a structure for school districts to manage asthma using a comprehensive approach. There are planning tools, school policy recommendations, and asthma self-management education programs. You're about to hear from two schools currently benefiting from DPH's Asthma Friendly Schools program. Allow me to introduce with fullness of breath our show's guests from the Fulton County School District. First, Dr. Maisha Otway has been the principal of College Park Elementary for seven years. Dr. Otway has more than 30 years though under her fabulous belt in education, and Daija Norwood is a fifth grade Gen ed teacher in her career. She's about five years in. Daija joins us from High Point Elementary, which is in Sandy Springs. Welcome women.

Daija Norwood: Hi.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Hello.

Daija Norwood: I'm happy to be here.

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm happy you're here. How are you today?

Daija Norwood: Doing well. Happy to be here.

Ashley Mengwasser: Fantastic. Anyone currently suffering from asthma?

Daija Norwood: No.

Ashley Mengwasser: Good. I'm glad to hear that. Strangely, despite never having met, you two have a lot in common, beginning with how you came upon the field of education. Maisha, what's your story?

Dr. Maisha Otway: When we think about education, for me, because I've been in it for such a long time, it's fun to go back and just think about how did I get into education? I started, I went to school for pre-med or nursing. I wanted to be a nurse practitioner and my big sister, we had a big sister program in all women's college, and I was running around walking with her and she was an educator. Funny enough, my grandmother and my mom were both educators, had never thought about being in education. I had done everything from high school, even prior sciences, had done a lot of pre-work to be prepared to be a nurse practitioner. Then after that first semester I really wanted to be in education. There was a connection through experiences my parents gave me when it came to volunteering, being tutoring and doing things such as that. I wasn't in love with math, so that was a hard sell. That wasn't a hard sell as long I didn't have to teach math. That was my transition after that first semester.

Ashley Mengwasser: And here you are.

Daija Norwood: And here I am 30 years later.

Ashley Mengwasser: Daija, you had a very similar track, which I want to hear about. You said it was in your heart to be a teacher. It must have been because you were in a similar field as Dr. Otway here. Go ahead.

Daija Norwood: Yes. I originally started at Georgia State. I went to freshman orientation as going to be majoring in chemistry. I was like, "I'm going to go be a pediatrician. I can do this and I can do that and it'll be fun." I did the campus tour and I was like, "Okay, I can do this." Then the night before classes started I was like, "I can't do this."

Ashley Mengwasser: I can't do this.

Daija Norwood: No, I'm not going to do this. I sent an email, I dropped all my classes, took a little gap year, traveled a little bit, and then I was like, "You know what? I'm going to go to Kennesaw. I'm going to see that campus." I went to Kennesaw State, looked at that campus and I was like, "I love it and I want to do education." I have grandmothers who were teaching. It's just something I was like, "I think this is my purpose, let's do it." I was like, "I know I signed up for fall. Can I start this summer?" They were like, "If there's classes." I was like, "I'll figure that out. Let me just figure it out." They said, "Okay."

Ashley Mengwasser: Whoa, you enrolled right there pretty much?

Daija Norwood: I did, I did. I got my courses and two of the classes were elementary education classes for science and for math. I loved the math, unlike you, and I was like, "This is it." That's how I decided to teach.

Ashley Mengwasser: Now you are an elementary educator.

Daija Norwood: Yes, I am.

Ashley Mengwasser: Let's talk about who you are as individuals. I know there's a shared love of music here. Dr. Otway, you say we can always find clips of you singing. Explain this.

Dr. Maisha Otway: One of my self-care or sharpening the saw activities is to attend concerts in the Atlanta area. That's not hard to do. But always on my Instagram I have footage of me singing loudly, singing the songs. I always know the words pretty much, but it doesn't often sound good. But I love to sing loud and proud as if I could be a backup singer or be a fill-in, although I know my talents don't match my energy and love for singing loud and proud.

Ashley Mengwasser: You should at least try contacting Beyoncé's tour manager. You never know.

Dr. Maisha Otway: I should. I should.

Ashley Mengwasser: Backup vocalist. There's a whole industry of that. What is sharpening the saw? I haven't heard that expression before.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Sharpening the saw is the same thing as finding that balance in your life and then re-energizing. We use that in our 7 Habits of Successful People. Sharpening the saw is part of that 7 Habits of Successful Children, which goes into what we'll talk about with asthma empowering ourselves. But that's one of Stephen Covey's seven habits. Sharpening the saw is one of them.

Ashley Mengwasser: All right. It's kind of like a self-development thing?

Dr. Maisha Otway: Yeah. How you proceed in life, being proactive, think with the end in mind, sharpening the saw, synergizing, all of those habits that adults and children have. You are healthy people all around and you're a leader.

Ashley Mengwasser: Great habits to live by. Daija, you also love concerts.

Daija Norwood: I do.

Ashley Mengwasser: You've done some wild things in your classroom. Why do you take us through some of your idiosyncrasies?

Daija Norwood: I do like concerts also. Beyoncé was one of them, was on stage.

Ashley Mengwasser: Look at that.

Daija Norwood: Right there. Then the last concert was Chris Brown because Usher canceled. It was really-

Ashley Mengwasser: He did cancel.

Daija Norwood: Really sad about that.

Ashley Mengwasser: Waiting on that reschedule myself.

Daija Norwood: I know, December. I don't know, Thursday night, can I miss school? I don't know.

Dr. Maisha Otway: I say the strong can make it in.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's right.

Daija Norwood: On a Friday?

Dr. Maisha Otway: You just don't do as much.

Ashley Mengwasser: There you go. Stephen Covey would be so proud of that.

Daija Norwood: I always, look, I go above and beyond because I've always found myself doing many things in education and one of them is moving grade levels. I have taught second grade, first grade, and last year I taught fourth grade. We did a whole Harry Potter theme in the classroom and the kids really bought into it so much so that every review we did was Harry Potter themed. We did a Triwizard Tournament and even I bought a Triwizard glow-in-the-dark cup that couldn't lit up for the kids.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh my gosh.

Daija Norwood: Whoever got the most correct and solved the whole mystery escape room thing won the Triwizard cup and they got to keep it for until the next tournament we had.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh wow.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Memories. Such memories.

Ashley Mengwasser: I would be dressed and ready to go to school at 5:00 a.m. with a Harry Potter classroom.

Dr. Maisha Otway: I'd be in her class asking how I can be a part of this competition.

Ashley Mengwasser: That is really fun. Well this is going to be a fun conversation as you're both exuding so well. I want to hear maybe from the vantage point of your current position, if we transition to our asthma conversation. What is the problem you've seen with unmanaged student asthma? Give it to us from the administrative standpoint, Dr. Otway.

Dr. Maisha Otway: From the administrative standpoint, we definitely are looking at our students in the seat. We have academic gains that we need to make. We have academic goals for every year and if the students aren't there, then that becomes a challenge. When we break down why children are absent or have high absences or why our absences are not meeting the overall level of the data that I look at, asthma and illness and not that, just that whole child wellness, health and wellness are hugely impacted. Then at our school we have a significant number of students who have asthma. That impact, if they're not in school and their asthma is not under control, then they're missing days in school. It can be up to 14 days depending on how poorly managed it is.

Ashley Mengwasser: Wow. That's pretty standard?

Dr. Maisha Otway: If it's not managed at all, it could be 10 to 14 days. Then when it's well-managed, zero days. You got three to five days and that kind of gauges where they are.

Ashley Mengwasser: Look at that. You're looking at the absences as an indicator because there's a huge difference between 14 days at unmanaged and zero at well-managed. That's two weeks. That's incredible. What about you Daija, classroom teacher?

Daija Norwood: I know. It's pretty much the same. They are not able to manage their asthma, don't have the proper education or resources to get the proper management, then they are not at school. They spend more time at home or in the hospital to try to get some relief because everything you do, you have to breathe. When that airflow is being restricted, it's hard and they don't want to come to school and talk and play and go to recess when it's hard to breathe.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes.

Daija Norwood: They're not at school and so it's more makeup work for them. It's stressful for them. You have all these deadlines and you have to keep teaching so it's hard to even catch them up sometimes. It's just really tough when you have a child who doesn't have the management or the resources, the education to be able to manage their asthma.

Ashley Mengwasser: That is very distressing to show up at school and not feel like you can be yourself.

Daija Norwood: Right.

Ashley Mengwasser: What are the students when they come back? You mentioned, are they a little bit stressed about being behind?

Daija Norwood: They are and sometimes they're still tired. Their body is still recovering from the effects of having severe asthma and not being able to breathe. They're more lethargic and they just are trying to regain focus and they feel like they're the out of body experience. They're like, "I know I go here, I know my schedule and routine, but I haven't done it for a while, so what do I do?"

Dr. Maisha Otway: There's another aspect I was thinking of just in the dialogue around when there are children who don't have managed asthma and they're in school, they're not having a full school experience. Oftentimes there's mis-education around I can't participate in sports or I can't go outside during this time with their allergy induced asthma. I can't go outside because their asthma is not managed so then there's high pollen counts that we have, especially in the Atlanta area. They're not having a full experience like their peers. We talk about a sense of belonging and we know well-managed asthma, they can participate a full day just like everyone else. Now we add that on to them not being able to belong or be a part of activities, whether it be health, exercising, being outside, being indoors, recess. There's a lot of aspects of not having it managed even on the days when it's not severe where they're like when they're in the middle, it's a lot of the kids who are in the middle, it's not well managed and because it's their bodies, their signs that they're able to tell this is what's about to happen in their lives and where the medication or whatever is happening and they're not in control of that. They're being taken outside of that academic environment and the fun environment. Then they just don't have that healthy sense of belonging in their environment.

Ashley Mengwasser: You mentioned this, there is a physiological foreshadowing that's happening within the student when they're about to have an attack. Can you help us recognize the signs and symptoms that somebody is in respiratory distress or about to be in respiratory distress?

Dr. Maisha Otway: I think Daija's going to hit you with that. I know they have it on the back of their badges.

Daija Norwood: But no, a lot of it is really just the tightening of the chest. Sometimes it's something that I can't physically see, but sometimes they will begin to clutch at their chest or their throat or they might cough a lot more. You can sometimes for them they can, some of them have wheezing.

Dr. Maisha Otway: The wheezing, definitely.

Daija Norwood: They start to wheeze a little bit. It's not resolved after you settle down. It's not resolved after drinking water and it's just getting harder. For them it's hard, especially when I was a first grade teacher, they're still learning how to communicate.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Right.

Daija Norwood: You have to pay attention to some of those signs. Then we lived during a pandemic and so is it asthma, is it COVID? It's really challenging so you just kind of have to know each child because it looks different for each child sometimes.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Some of the children, their asthma is brought on by different reasons. Sometimes it's cold induced or viral induced and then others for outside allergens. Inside our buildings we have to be cognizant of what types of air fresheners, which are pretty much none, but having those scents or they induce asthma in the building, smoke having buses run for a long time.

Ashley Mengwasser: The exhaust?

Dr. Maisha Otway: They're outside of the exhaust just a bus is running late, and you have children out there waiting for a bus while other buses are loading. Just practices where we carpool lane or car drop-off lane, having people cut off their cars instead of having them sit there running because they are agitants to asthma as well.

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes. If you listening have never witnessed someone having an asthma attack, it's very scary. Just imagine losing control of your own breath. I had this story from when I was a child. I was elementary age. My dad suffered from asthma. I woke up in the middle of the night and my home was filled with an ambulance and EMS workers. I said, "What's going on out here?" My dad was on the couch and he just kept saying, "I can't breathe, I can't breathe." He had an inhaler and everything and it wasn't helping him. They had to take him to the emergency room in the middle of the night and he was carried out on a gurney and everything and they had oxygen on him and he was crying and panicking. This is my adult father. That traumatized me a little bit. I remember learning when he got back from the hospital, some tips about asthma and here's what happens if I'm having an attack and here's where I keep my inhaler and those sorts of things. In your personal life, if you've seen this, you understand the severity of it. But I can imagine being in school and not being equipped with what you need to alleviate this. In your personal lives, do each of you have a personal connection to asthma? Dr. Otway?

Dr. Maisha Otway: It sounds very similar with both of us, but yes, I have an uncle growing up, it was well managed, knew he had asthma, knew he had a pump, didn't know the severity of it. But my son who is now 24 suffer from asthma where we spent a lot of time at the ages of at birth, they don't necessarily diagnose asthma at birth. They want to wait until they grow up. They told us if grown up could be one or two, but he started showing those same symptoms that never dissipated.

But by the age of two he was in the hospital quite a lot. He was getting albutyral treatments, but they still didn't want to name it asthma. Then by the time he was between four, because he did go to pre-K and kindergarten, there was a lot of hospitalization, three, four. But by kindergarten it was well managed. It was just getting to know who he was and what his allergies were and his viral, which he had it on both sides. It was allergy induced as well as viral. When it's both of allergies and viral, you're like, "Okay." There are different types of inhalers, different types of treatments for both.

Ashley Mengwasser: Right.

Dr. Maisha Otway: That experience was scary a lot. I remember sleeping with him, a 2-year-old in the hospital chair because he wouldn't sleep in his bed. I'm in the chair with him so I have a lot of memories. My husband and my dropping the rest of the children off and I remember all of that. But when it came into being a principal and you think about going through all of that and we had all that, it wasn't lack of medical exposure, it was just we had to go through the process. Then being exposed to children, you can hear them wheezing and that's wheezing and you're like, "Wait, do you have asthma?" They're like, "What are you talking about? No, I don't have asthma."

Ashley Mengwasser: There you go.

Dr. Maisha Otway: You do have asthma. It's not well managed, and not medically diagnosing them, but then going through that process and knowing that in second grade and first grade they can learn how to manage it as long as it's a family practice, the programs that we'll talk about, but help them to understand their asthma and be free from and really have that leadership. We talk empowering them to really own their own bodies and have that healthy lifestyle.

Ashley Mengwasser: You. You are in the health barrier to learning detection agency, both of you, because you do know the signs and symptoms now. You're able to spot these for students who don't even know that they're struggling. Albuterol, the inhalant that you mentioned, is a bronchodilator. When we talk about tightening of chest, it just opens those airways back up and that's how they can get oxygen back in. Do you have a personal experience with this Daija?

Daija Norwood: I do. Very similar except it was instead of my dad, it was my mom. She has asthma, very severe, and growing up I didn't have experiences where I noticed she was having full-blown asthma attacks, but as she got older it started to progressively get worse. Your body changes and so sometimes the initial medicines they have for you, like the albuterol, it's no longer effective.

Ashley Mengwasser: What?

Daija Norwood: You have to increase the dose; you have to maybe change the brand. Now I'm like, "I have all the colors, like the blue albuterol, the red cymbalcord, like the purple." It's different ones.

Ashley Mengwasser: It's a shape-shifting illness. I did not know that.

Daija Norwood: It is.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Oh definitely.

Daija Norwood: Like I said about the pandemic, COVID, that induced a lot of people who had asthma that made it worse if they contracted that. My mom unfortunately did contract it twice. One day I'm an adult and all of my siblings, they're younger, but they're also old enough to not be in the house because they're in college. She was passed out in the front yard because she didn't know she had COVID and she was taking the trash out and she was having an asthma attack. Luckily I was just happening to go visit her.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Wow Daija.

Daija Norwood: I was able to see her and get her inhaler. But we did have to call EMS too because it was just so severe. My youngest little brother, he's a fifth grader actually.

Ashley Mengwasser: Your little brother now is a fifth grader?

Daija Norwood: Yes. My little brother now is a fifth grader.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Wishing he had you as an awesome teacher. Sure.

Daija Norwood: Yes, and he has it. He has it too. He has it just like my mom and it's very severe and he's been hospitalized too because of it. But getting him the proper education and learning what he can do and which medicines work for him actually has helped because he's feeling like he has a sense of belonging because he does play football.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh look.

Daija Norwood: A lot of people are like, "You can't play sports." It's misinformation. If it's properly managed, you can and so he does. It's just learning and you have to go through those growing pains and being in the hospital sometimes to get the best solution.

Ashley Mengwasser: Management is the key.

Daija Norwood: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Let's transition into our topical discussion now. What experience have you had with DPH's Asthma Friendly Schools program? How about from a teacher's perspective, Daija?

Daija Norwood: At first, I was like, "What is this? You want me to send what home?" Because they have to get permission from their parents to attend, but they come to the school, which is awesome. It's not something parents have to take on and take their child to something else. But they sign up, they come to the school, they give us the days and the schedule. Anybody who has on record that they have asthma or have an inhaler in the clinic is how, from what I was told, is how they identify the students and who to get the permission from. Parents just say yes or no if they want their child to attend. Typically, they're not going to say no. It's during the school day. It doesn't impact them. I had two students who had asthma and they were able to go to this education program during the school day and get more information about their asthma and how to best treat it and just management practices. Especially when they're older, they give them a little bit more detail because they're like, "How do you recognize the signs for you? And then what do you do in those situations? What if you're alone? What if you're with someone?" What is safety parameters essentially to help educate them so they can still come to school and be healthy.

Ashley Mengwasser: The empowerment part of this program is huge. Dr. Otway, what's been your experience with Asthma Friendly Schools?

Dr. Maisha Otway: Very similar to attendance. I meet monthly. I have the benefit of having the Family Health Centers of Georgia in my building. We meet monthly with the health and wellness department and we look at data, what's high absences, why, what are our needs that we see coming that the medical department would treat? Asthma was one of the indicators or parents are keeping kids home for absences, so that one of the high indicators was around asthma. Then we also had some data from our clinic around children who have asthma or the policy around what can happen based on where the asthma pump can be stored. Children have asthma pumps in their backpack, not having it on record. We looked at, we wanted to increase the number of students who we were aware that they actually had asthma. Then we found out they weren't even identified as having asthma. They have inhalers, which they can at certain ages have the inhaler on them, but we don't have a record, so increasing that number of students who are properly documented. Then we also found out that we had a number of students who were not through the clinic, both experiences going to the health center as well as our school clinic. They asked me what do I need? I said, "I need a program that is going to support the asthma." They said, "Well, we have one in our school system, we have one. Would you be eligible to do that? Would you be interested in having it?" I was like, "Absolutely." From there, calendar rising with the department from our Fulton County school system to say what are the dates that are available? Really scheduling out how many students can be seen, how often, because it's funded, of course, through the Georgia Department of Education, so really helping with the scheduling. Then seeing data continue to grow that the attendance is improving and then the empowerment. Then I also get to check in on the lessons and really make the kids feel comfortable because I engage with a lot of parents when the absences get high and I've been there for a while. I'm like, "Why are they not here?" And really talking to them, "We have this program. Next year we're going to put them on the group or here's what you need to do." I ended up getting involved with just having those one-on-one conversations. Also, like I said, hanging out in the cool class, seeing what they're learning.

Ashley Mengwasser: What does it look like for the students who are in the program? Do they carry something? How do you know who's in the program?

Dr. Maisha Otway: I would know specifically who's in the program because going to the actual class, they have permission go. It's like a lunch bunch, what we call a lunch bunch. It happens through their lunchtime and a few minutes over. But walking around in the building, and if you didn't know it from my lens or you weren't a classroom teacher, you might not even know.

Ashley Mengwasser: How many years have you had this program at your school?

Dr. Maisha Otway: So far, only two, at least from my knowledge. It's really been super impactful though.

Ashley Mengwasser: So far, so good.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Two years and we're waiting to hear when this year's clinic is going to start.

Ashley Mengwasser: Okay, so you're going to stay enrolled?

Dr. Maisha Otway: Absolutely. Absolutely. My clinic assistant has a goal around and ensuring that we're detecting all the students and providing any resources for the family if it's not managed because we want to reduce the number of students with asthma that is not managed.

Ashley Mengwasser: Absolutely. Obviously the teacher's involved because the teacher needs to know who in their class is dealing with asthma. What other school staff are involved in this program and what role do they play to make it successful?

Daija Norwood: Honestly, everyone.

Ashley Mengwasser: Really?

Daija Norwood: It's a full effort, a full team effort because just because the students on my roster, we all interact with that student at some point. Even the cafeteria workers, because lunch, they eat something the wrong way, they can begin choking. That can cause an asthma attack to occur as well. Even the cafeteria workers would have to be aware. They won't have as much help, but at least basic education for them, like knowing the signs and symptoms, what to do when it happens. It takes everyone. It takes the teachers, the cafeteria workers, the music, art, PE teachers, especially the PE teachers with the increased physical activity, the principals, assistant principals, the clinic aides and nurses.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Front desk receptionist.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's true at College Park Elementary too, Dr. Otway?

Dr. Maisha Otway: Absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser: Everybody's involved. Anybody left out?

Dr. Maisha Otway: No one's left out. Even the custodians need to know, we have in our district the requirement around that healthy, clean air because we all, like I said, especially after recess in the spring, we want our classrooms to smell a certain way and the custodians know. The custodial team knows that it's not just about this is the rule. We have X amount of students and they will be impacted by this and so they do their sweeps and make sure, "Yeah, I know." Right now, I walk by a couple of rooms, and it smells like Christmas already. I'm like, "We got to take those out. I don't want to smell recess either, but we got to do something else."

Ashley Mengwasser: It could trigger an asthma attack.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Absolutely. A trick for eliminating smells from the environment naturally because I use this in my home. It's just leaving out some baking soda. It absorbs smells. Isn't that fascinating?

Dr. Maisha Otway: That's cheap to invest in.

Ashley Mengwasser: And it's odorless, right?

Dr. Maisha Otway: Arm & Hammer, the orange one that used to be in the back of the fridge.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's why it works in the fridge. It absorbs those odors. You mentioned talking to parents, Maisha, you've got to talk to your parents, ask them how the students doing, how they're doing. What level are parents involved with this program?

Dr. Maisha Otway: The beauty of it is that the parents do not have to come. They have to sign permission.

Ashley Mengwasser: Sure.

Dr. Maisha Otway: But this is about empowering the child when it comes to the skills, the signs and what they can and cannot do, and also having a little network. Parents, where their role, not necessarily in the program, but our goal is also educate them, support them if they need an extra inhaler, support them with getting the steps to make sure that their health, their asthma is being managed. The program is to empower the student, but how it's coupled with the school support is the clinic assistant for us at College Park Family Health Centers of Georgia's is helping with educating and ensuring that the parents are having a managed asthma plan. They do have to have an asthma plan and that's how they support the student and being successful and empowering them off of their asthma plan.

Ashley Mengwasser: Got you. An asthma plan. What do you have to add to this Daija? How are your parents responding?

Daija Norwood: It's pretty much the same. They're very receptive. They want to do it and they don't want their child to miss school either, so they're like, "How can I get help? What can I do?" Once they have this experience in this class, it helps them, like the student, like she said, empowers the student to even go home and teach their parents. I'm like, "Oh, I didn't know this and that happens to me." Now they're all excited because they're like, "Oh, I get to be the teacher and I get to teach my parents something and tell them what to do."

Ashley Mengwasser: They have the knowledge?

Daija Norwood: Yes, they do. It makes it awesome because then it also helps the parent feel like, "Wow, now I have a way to actually help and support my child."

Ashley Mengwasser: Yes, we love success stories here. If you can think of any anecdotes that really fit the bill for the improvement piece of the Asthma Friendly School's toolkit, what have you seen with a student, whether it's school attendance, their classroom success, participation, overall exuberance? Have you seen a change in any of your students?

Daija Norwood: Absolutely. One specifically was a student who I put on productions is not part of the curriculum. Students have to come after school and I just make it up. ChatGPT has helped me with a lot of the lines now that it exists.

Ashley Mengwasser: Look at you.

Dr. Maisha Otway: But I had a student who lives very close to school, and he would miss practice. He's like, "I got to go home and get my inhaler." I was like, "Okay, why isn't your inhaler here?" Now he's gone from not having an inhaler at school, not having any asthma plan on record at school to reduced absences already this school year. But he participated in a program last year, a full asthma plan, full inhaler at school. He's in fifth grade now participating and he's been with us since pre-K. You think about if you've been with us since pre-K, no, kindergarten. I think he joined us in kindergarten. You started in kindergarten, you didn't have an asthma plan and if you were not in Dr. Otway's production and just having that, you wouldn't have been able to be in the program, and then now in fifth grade, zero absences.

Ashley Mengwasser: You're out here telling stories and saving lives, basically

Dr. Maisha Otway: Putting them in the right hands of people to save their lives.

Ashley Mengwasser: That's right.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Yes. Then just overall, just the attendance. When we look at the medical needs or the health and wellness, the numbers for asthma has reduced as we continue to enroll more students, continue to bring people aware. It's the maintenance because the success stories are for the students while they're in the building and then new students will come in. Being hypervigilant on the practices, but overall, just seeing that impact on the number.

Ashley Mengwasser: And truly being inside and out asthma friendly, as the program is named. Daija, what successes have you seen?

Daija Norwood: Very similar. I had a student last year and actually I have her twin brother this year who doesn't have asthma.

Ashley Mengwasser: Isn't that interesting? Genes, I tell you.

Daija Norwood: I know. But she was absent a lot because of her asthma and sometimes even in class if she was stressed because she does have an IEP, individualized education plan, so she would freak out sometimes about testing. She would start hyperventilating and she would sometimes cause her asthma attacks essentially. It was hard because she wanted to be successful, she wanted to work hard, but just trying to get her that management, so having her attend that class and stuff, it actually helped. There was this one incident last year where it just became so severe we actually had to go to the hospital. I had to ride in the hospital ambulance with her because my principal wasn't there that day so there was nobody to ride in the ambulance because typically an admin person would ride. I was like, "There's nobody? I guess I'm going."

Ashley Mengwasser: I'm going.

Daija Norwood: Because her aunt had to come get her, so I met them at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, CHOA Hospital and ever since then, and then her attending the Asthma Friendly School session, that shift it completely because then she felt more excited. We actually have a Girls On The Run program at our school. She actually participated in that.

Ashley Mengwasser: I love that. I love that.

Daija Norwood: She did the full 5K at the end.

Ashley Mengwasser: Oh my gosh.

Daija Norwood: She's now happy and she's at school more and she's not, she still stresses about tests, but she knows how to calm herself back down, so she doesn't have an asthma attack. It's really awesome to see that, just that simple piece of educating them and giving them the resource because she had an inhaler, so it's managed, but she was missing that educational piece of how does it look for me.

Ashley Mengwasser: To be fair, I think we've all been in a test where we felt a crisis point.

Daija Norwood: Oh, absolutely.

Ashley Mengwasser: We know what that's like. But I'm glad she's getting it under control now at an early age.

Daija Norwood: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Asthma Friendly Schools for districts and other school systems out there who are considering this program, let's leave them with a couple recommendations. What do you have for them?

Dr. Maisha Otway: Don't think twice, just do it.

Daija Norwood: Just sign up.

Dr. Maisha Otway: It's low prep. It's easy. Like I said, it's sessions over a period of time. You just need the space. You have the kids in your building so it's very easy. It connects with the work of your school district at some point. Health and wellness, we can't do our work without it.

Ashley Mengwasser: Without that. Could it be cost prohibitive at all to any system?

Dr. Maisha Otway: No. How we have it, it's through the partnership. It's paid to get the program. It comes with accepting it. We don't pay for it.

Ashley Mengwasser: Excellent. Sounds perfect to me.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Me too.

Ashley Mengwasser: Sign up today. All right. To the family member or friend of a student in Georgia schools who's listening and they know a student, their student has asthma, but they don't have this program at their school, what do you recommend that they do, Dr. Otway?

Dr. Maisha Otway: I would say their first step is going to their pediatrician and ensuring that they have a strong asthma plan. Because the asthma plan is what makes the program so beneficial because they're helping the students. They're empowering them through their asthma plan. What do I need to be on the lookout for and how do I do that, as well as how do I have friends who are in the same situation. That asthma plan is the basis of how the student is going to be able to manage their asthma. Then from there, taking that asthma plan, they can research in the area, are there any support groups for asthma or any specific components of that asthma plan that the child is struggling with or they're not clear on what it means for them as a child and kind of building their own experiences that is really tailored to their child.

Ashley Mengwasser: And building their knowledge?

Dr. Maisha Otway: Building their knowledge and saying, "Okay, this is what this looks like." Also reaching out to the clinic assistant at school because then they could reach out to the district to see if there are any other options or any information or connections that they have partnerships are what make this all successful. There's so many creative people who experience asthma. We have the benefit of this program, but there's a lot of other things out there. But it all starts with a successful asthma plan. That's where we work to ensure that all of our students, because you're managing it through the doctor's direction based on that child, and you're able to go back and ask for changes if that plan isn't working.

Ashley Mengwasser: If it needs to be addressed or amended. Daija, I'm thinking about you. This has only been in your school for two years, just like Dr. Otway's. It had to get in there to begin with. Right?

Daija Norwood: Right.

Ashley Mengwasser: Somebody made a recommendation. Do you think it's as simple as a parent or family member could recommend it to the school?

Daija Norwood: It could be, or Dr. Otway said, the clinic nurse, the clinic aide, we have something called a cluster nurse. She looks at all the data for all the schools and if she sees that there's a need for it, then she's recommending, "Hey, you guys have a high population of students who have asthma or have undocumented or mismanaged asthma. So we need to figure out a solution for them to be successful so that we can increase their attendance at school and decrease the number of absences. So we want to make them empowered to be able to manage it themselves." It can be as simple as asking the pediatrician or saying, "Hey, as a parent, I'm really concerned about my child and missing school, so how can I help them with their asthma and managing it?" You never know, they might have an answer or they might have the program. It is that simple.

Dr. Maisha Otway: If your child has asthma, ensuring that the school is aware that they have asthma. Even if you're doing all this management at home, it's truly a partnership between school and home. A lot of parents are just like, "Oh, I didn't realize it because they take care of it or they hold their inhaler. They're X amount of years old, eight years old, nine years old." But you want to make sure that the school is aware because then if they're aware that they have asthma, they're going to help support you get the right resources for there.

Daija Norwood: Yes.

Ashley Mengwasser: Dr. Otway, Daija, thank you so much for being here today and having such a friendly conversation with me about Asthma Friendly Schools. I appreciate it.

Daija Norwood: Thanks for having us.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Thank for having us.

Ashley Mengwasser: You guys absolutely took my breath away. Keep singing though. I want to see some clips of you on Instagram.

Dr. Maisha Otway: You got to go to Instagram. Principal Otway. You'll see me.

Ashley Mengwasser: We'll be there.

Dr. Maisha Otway: Be there in my little circles. I love it.

Ashley Mengwasser: Thank you, Dr. Otway. Thank you Daija. To our educators listening, you too can tame this health barrier to learning with this triumphant toolkit from Georgia DPH. Just visit gpb.org/classroom/conversations and we'll post a link to the toolkit there. You're a great teacher and a great leader. Take what you now know and use it for the health of it and for your students. Classroom convos ain't going anywhere anytime soon. Meet me here next week, same time, same place, same solution sharing teacher talk. I'm Ashley. Goodbye for now.