WASHINGTON — There is no national plan that tells schools how to protect students in case of a bird-flu epidemic. Schools are looking to local health departments for guidance.

"We're scrambling just like everybody else," said David Griffith, spokesman for the National Association of State Boards of Education. "You don't want to be slow because when the genie's out, the genie's out."

The best defense may be to close a school so sick students don't spread the flu to others, he said, citing the advice of health experts.

A national plan isn't expected because decisions such as when to close a school and how to notify parents are made by local authorities, said Susan Wooley of the American School Health Association in Kent, Ohio.

"Under the Constitution, responsibility for education rests with states," she said.

Officials are re-examining school closure policies. Usually, they close if 10 percent of the children or teachers call in sick, Wooley said.

Schools also are weighing how best to keep parents informed about what's going on in their children's schools.

Few concrete plans have emerged.

In Nashville, Tenn., school and health officials are developing ways to educate students at home if they need to close schools because of a bird flu outbreak. Los Angeles educators are reminding parents once again to keep sick kids at home. School nurses in Las Cruces, N.M., are watching for a sudden jump in flu cases.

The Hawai'i Department of Education has no specific plan for avian flu in the works at this time, but would react the same way it does to any serious health concern, according to spokeswoman Sandy Goya.

"The DOE would keep in close communication with the Department of Health, Civil Defense and the Red Cross, and should these lead agencies advise the DOE that the schools should be closed at any time due to avian flu, the DOE would take action accordingly," she said.

"Schools have in place procedures for dealing with health issues. Our health aides who are part of the DOH would notify the DOE immediately if they see anything that warranted action."

Nationwide, local officials are repeating what they tell parents during flu season — tell your kids to wash their hands frequently and cover their mouths when sneezing and coughing — while they work on the broader plans.

Though no cases of avian flu have been reported in the United States, school districts began planning after Nov. 1, when President Bush made fighting the potentially deadly flu his top domestic priority.

Bush seeks $7.1 billion from Congress, partly to research, produce and stockpile anti-viral drugs.

The Department of Health and Human Services has prepared an overall national plan, which wouldn't specify what schools should do but urges them to prepare their own plans.

The U.S. Department of Education might issue guidelines that schools can choose to follow.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings wants to get a federal public health expert to help schools. Spellings also is discussing ways schools and colleges could be resources, perhaps as drug-distribution centers, said her spokeswoman, Susan Aspey.

Some governors are considering adopting statewide bird flu strategies with federal guidance.

Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., said he might talk to his counterparts in neighboring states to come up with a common course of action.

Richardson said that when Bush discussed the bird flu Nov. 1, New Mexico didn't have a plan to help schools combat the potential epidemic. He has since asked his staff to come up with one. "I worry that I don't have a plan," Richardson said.

The 1999 school shootings in Columbine, Colo., and the Sept. 11 attacks pushed schools to prepare emergency plans to deal with violence but not health emergencies.

Planning for a medical emergency is best left to local health authorities because schools have other things to worry about, said Wooley of the American School Health Association.

"School administrators are so inundated with No Child Left Behind and things like that that they say, 'Bird flu? Let somebody else deal with that, please,' " she said, referring to the federal education law that requires a host of new testing.

Staff writer Bev Creamer contributed to this report.