Mars Area School District encourages all families to talk with your children about the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Children need factual, age-appropriate information about the potential seriousness of the disease as well as concrete instruction for how to avoid its spread. Parents, family members and other trusted adults can play an important role in helping children make sense of what they hear in a way that is honest, accurate, and minimizes anxiety or fear. 

Parents should:

• Remain calm. If a parent seems overly worried, a child's anxiety may rise.
• Provide reassurance. Health and school officials are working hard to ensure that people throughout the country stay healthy. Children are not "high-risk" and the majority of people with COVID-19 experience mild symptoms and recover.
• Keep information simple and straightforward. Looking for a good place to start, please refer to the resources provided below. 
• Find opportunities to correct misinformation. It's okay if you don’t know all the answers. Information is constantly changing. Please keep the dialogue with your child open.
• Reinforce that not one group is to blame. No group should be stereotyped as responsible for the virus, and bullying or racial discrimination will not be tolerated in our schools. This virus can affect anybody.