Schools in Sweet Home, Lebanon and Albany are spending this week disinfecting surfaces and sending notes home after record numbers of students called in sick.

In Scio, Harrisburg, Jefferson and Central Linn schools, absentee rates spiked earlier but were back to normal this week.

In Sweet Home, absentee rates at Foster, Hawthorne elementary schools and Sweet Home Junior High topped 20 percent this week, and Crawfordsville was at 35 percent, district nurse Jane Bubak said. Numbers at Sweet Home High School also were edging higher.

Several doctors' notes have confirmed the H1N1 flu virus, Bubak said. "It's here. What we've been waiting for is here."

The district has disinfected surfaces and canceled salad bars at the four schools, and is keeping the health department informed, Bubak said. Parents are being asked to keep their children hydrated and at home.

In Lebanon, 116 of the 445 students at Riverview Elementary School, which serves kindergarten through fifth grade, were out Tuesday, said Department Administrator Dale Koger.

Most reported fevers and upset stomachs. Eight of the 50 teachers and staff were also ill, Koger said.

Lebanon schools are out today and for the rest of the week for staff development and parent conferences. Koger said the district's absentee rates are up overall, "but I don't think we have anything approaching this" at other schools.

Albany had more than 10 percent of its students out sick at almost all its schools this week, said Jim Haggart, executive assistant to the superintendent. One school - Fairmount Elementary, which has 101 pupils - was at 25 percent on Tuesday, Haggart said.

Albany plans to hold a clinic as soon as more vaccine becomes available, Haggart said.

The Central Linn School District had 80 of its 250 students in the combined junior-senior high school out sick last week, but absences have dropped since. The district planned a free H1N1 vaccination clinic this afternoon at the high school for all district residents in the high-risk categories.

The Scio district, which held a vaccination clinic Oct. 21, saw a 12 percent absentee rate at Scio Middle School last Tuesday, but rates have leveled off.

Harrisburg had almost half its middle school students out sick two weeks ago, but numbers are back to normal.

At Jefferson High School, absence rates spiked about two weeks ago, the district office said, but figures were not immediately available.