Schools reopened their doors this week to hundreds of students - and with them, germs.

And while personal hygiene and cleanliness campaigns are par for the course of back-to-school season, local, state and national agencies are taking care to educate about one particular type of germ: novel H1N1, the flu that closed hundreds of schools last spring. Authorities believe it is only a matter of when - and how severely - the virus resurges.

Local school districts are heeding the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and New York State Department of Health. They will diligently monitor students for symptoms, scrub facilities with greater care and educate parents about the importance of keeping sick children at home. But many districts say they are not preparing for a possible swine flu outbreak any differently than they prepare for the regular flu season, which hits every fall and winter like clockwork, or tardy bell.

“We don't want to panic,” said Shaun O'Connor, superintendent of Weedsport Central School District. “We want to apply rational thinking to the situation and try our best to deliver continuity of instruction.”

Weedsport students are taught to wash their hands frequently, encouraged to stay home when feeling sick and discouraged from sharing drinks.

“We're re-emphasizing the sound practices we already employ,” O'Connor said.

The district will look to the local and state health agencies for guidance, which means all teachers will receive information about how to keep their classrooms sanitary and how to recognize flu symptoms.

The state department of health and education released on Aug. 31 a guide for schools that outlines the state's recommendations for delaying the onset of a flu outbreak and minimizing its prevalence.

“For the most part, it isn't really complicated stuff,” said Mark Snyder, a BOCES safety instructor who gave a presentation summarizing state and federal recommendations to faculty and staff in 10 districts before school started. The guide reflects policies most schools practice on a regular basis. There is an emphasis on infection control practices, such as hand-washing, coughing into a tissue and disinfecting frequently-touched surfaces, he said.

“We're doing extra anti-viral, anti-bacterial cleaning each night - desktops, tabletops, bus seats, door knobs - in addition to regular cleaning,” said Michelle Brantner, superintendent of Moravia Central School District. “My first line is to be proactive.”

Union Springs classrooms will be equipped with special wipes to use on keyboards and other communal classroom utilities.

Schools will do their part to keep swine flu at bay with meticulous cleaning, but there is only so much teachers can do to ensure students maintain good hygiene. Parents must play an integral role in keeping their children healthy and keeping them home when they are ill, school officials said.

The state department of health's guide recommends that people with flu-like symptoms - a fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more and cough or sore throat - should stay home until they have been fever-free without medication for 24 hours. Last spring, authorities said people should stay home at least a week.

“An awful lot of the education is with parents at home,” said J. D. Pabis, superintendent of Auburn Enlarged City School District. The school will use e-mail and its recorded message system to relay to parents information about recognizing the flu, monitoring who and where their children play and keeping them home if ill.

Union Springs and Moravia will mail parents letters of a similar nature.

“So that parents know we are aware of what's going on and we are taking precautions,” said Linda Rice, Superintendent of Union Springs Central School District. “So they're not worried.”

State and national health departments have discouraged schools from shutting down due to an outbreak unless absolutely necessary. The county health department will work with schools this season to improve the districts' systems of tallying and categorizing absences, said Kathleen Cuddy, assistant director of the Cayuga County Department of Health and Human Services.

With a better count of flu-related absenteeism, the county and the districts will be able to gauge the flu's prevalence throughout the season more accurately and more efficiently respond to and contain an outbreak.

The county will hold clinics for flu shots, which county health officials recommend, said Cuddy.

“These precautions are really to help lessen the communicability and severity,” she said. “Seasonal and novel H1N1 will come around to our area again.”