lice policies in schools

[Anonymous]

Our small independent school is struggling with lice. We've had LOTS of cases since school started in September. We are a Preschool to 8 school with about 350 kids. The school requires 3 cases in a class before they send a notice. What policies do other schools have? I am so tired of my kids (and me) getting lice. I want to prevent this before it start spreading between kids.

[Anonymous]

In a preschool setting I would think the bar would be lower than at older grades, since those little guys are in each others faces all the time. I don't know what our school's lice policy is, but I would most certainly be on the horn to the head of the school about this. You should not all be getting lice repeatedly.

[Anonymous]

At both NCRC and GDS they send a notification with a single case of lice in a classroom. I’ve never heard of waiting until there are three cases…that’s odd. There seems to be no reason that they couldn’t change that policy…do they have the same policy for other illnesses like strep?

[Anonymous]

It’s been several years (DC is in HS), but the Montessori school DC attended from infant through early elementary was notification (and in school checks) after one confirmed case.

[Anonymous]

One confirmed case at our school too.

[Anonymous]

Our parochial school sends the infected kid home until the lice are gone, and then informs the families in the class that lice was in the classroom.

It happened once in DD’s class when she was in K. Hasn’t happened again in the last eight years. I much prefer this stricter stance. I had lice once as a kid and I’d rather not get it again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At both NCRC and GDS they send a notification with a single case of lice in a classroom. I’ve never heard of waiting until there are three cases…that’s odd. There seems to be no reason that they couldn’t change that policy…do they have the same policy for other illnesses like strep?

Most public schools no longer require the infected kid to stay out of school, nor do they notify families. Some privates are going that route as well.

[Anonymous]

I was really impressed how our Title 1 DCPS handled this last year. There was at least one case in my daughter's class, and I think there was at least one more in the school, could have very well been more. But they sent a school wide email, a specific email to my kid's class, AND every day for at least a week, the nurse came to my kid's class (and presumably all affected classes) in the morning, checked every kid thoroughly for lice, and sent anyone infected home. They took my daughter's hair down each day to check (I do it in braids every morning for exactly this reason) and someone re-braided it. She never got lice.