FAQs

The American Cleaning Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recognized the dire need for young people to wash their hands to decrease the spread of illnesses and absenteeism in the classroom. Nearly 22 million school days are lost due to the common cold alone, not to mention other diseases that are caused by bacteria and viruses.

Download the Commit to Clean toolkit for resources designed to get the school community involved in prioritizing hand hygiene as well as cleaning and disinfecting for illness prevention. Use these resources and explore the rest of this site for ideas on fun and impactful ways to promote proper cleaning and hand hygiene in your local schools.

The Healthy Schools, Healthy People, program is intended for educational purposes and is open to all public/private K-12 schools in states, territories and tribes within the US. Teachers of all disciplines, students, school nurses and other health personnel, food service staff, custodial/maintenance staff, administrators and parents are also encouraged to participate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends when you should wash your hands and the right way to wash. They also give guidance on using hand sanitizer when you don?t have soap and clean, running water and regularly disinfecting frequently-touched surfaces. These are some of the most important things you can do for infectious disease prevention.

The American Cleaning Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and worked in collaboration to develop the Healthy Schools, Healthy People Program.

ACI is the non-profit trade association representing manufacturers of household, industrial and institutional cleaning products; their ingredients; and finished packaging (for more information, visit the ACI website at www.cleaninginstitute.org).

The CDC is recognized as the lead federal agency for protecting the health and safety of people at home and abroad, providing credible information to enhance health decisions and promoting health through strong partnerships (for more information, visit the CDC website at www.cdc.gov).