MCPS lice policy = ignore

[Anonymous]

My MCPS elementary school does send home notices when there is a lice outbreak. Not sure if it is classroom specific or for the whole school, but we have gotten two notices already, which I appreciate because I know to be even more diligent about checking my daughter's hair. But other than that, what can they do? If you check your kids' hair regularly, then you will probably be able to catch it before it gets out of control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my kids, 1st and 3rd grade, and I get lice at least once a year because they county "can't" do anything about it. I don't understand and it is making me furious! The aftercare does an awesome job of checking for lice and sending kids home, but it is way beyond their control, as they can't check every kid in the school or try to decontaminate the classrooms. This is a basic hygiene issue for me so I don't quite get what the issue is - ie there are bugs at the school, solve the problem as a pre-school would (not hygiene in the showering/dirty sense) Kids/I miss at least 3 days of work/school a year for something that is solvable. The current situation is that only the aftercare kids get checked/sent home on a regular basis, but the cycle continues b/c there is no policy about dealing with the rest of the school population.

I am about to lose my shit on this because it is so inane.

Why on earth do your kids miss 3 days of school for lice??

Just comb their hair out. That doesn't take three days.

Who is telling you to keep them home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my kids, 1st and 3rd grade, and I get lice at least once a year because they county "can't" do anything about it. I don't understand and it is making me furious! The aftercare does an awesome job of checking for lice and sending kids home, but it is way beyond their control, as they can't check every kid in the school or try to decontaminate the classrooms. This is a basic hygiene issue for me so I don't quite get what the issue is - ie there are bugs at the school, solve the problem as a pre-school would (not hygiene in the showering/dirty sense) Kids/I miss at least 3 days of work/school a year for something that is solvable. The current situation is that only the aftercare kids get checked/sent home on a regular basis, but the cycle continues b/c there is no policy about dealing with the rest of the school population.

I am about to lose my shit on this because it is so inane.

The advice MCPS has received is that it would be a violation of privacy to either check all students periodically or to send a letter to the parents of classmates that one student has lice.


I personally would like students to have their temperatures taken each morning so sick kids can be sent home. I understand, however, why they don't do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So my kids, 1st and 3rd grade, and I get lice at least once a year because they county "can't" do anything about it. I don't understand and it is making me furious! The aftercare does an awesome job of checking for lice and sending kids home, but it is way beyond their control, as they can't check every kid in the school or try to decontaminate the classrooms. This is a basic hygiene issue for me so I don't quite get what the issue is - ie there are bugs at the school, solve the problem as a pre-school would (not hygiene in the showering/dirty sense) Kids/I miss at least 3 days of work/school a year for something that is solvable. The current situation is that only the aftercare kids get checked/sent home on a regular basis, but the cycle continues b/c there is no policy about dealing with the rest of the school population.

I am about to lose my shit on this because it is so inane.

The advice MCPS has received is that it would be a violation of privacy to either check all students periodically or to send a letter to the parents of classmates that one student has lice.


I personally would like students to have their temperatures taken each morning so sick kids can be sent home. I understand, however, why they don't do that.

You understand that a fever does not equal contagious, right? And that many kids who are contagious do not get fevers?

Heavens to Betsy, I'm glad you don't make the rules.

[Anonymous]

Do they really share headphones? I'm going to have to ask dd about that - yuck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is illegal to just march every student in the school and check them for lice just because you are in hysterics, OP.

It's "illegal" only in the sense that it would go against Montgomery Co's policy that it made up for itself. It's not like there some civil rights statute that is on point, or a divine law.

My kid's private school has pretty much the opposite approach as MoCo -- eg, they're aggressive and all over this shit, and they aren't cowed into remaining hands off/ silent due to fear of litigation or hurt feelings. Yessss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is illegal to just march every student in the school and check them for lice just because you are in hysterics, OP.

It's "illegal" only in the sense that it would go against Montgomery Co's policy that it made up for itself. It's not like there some civil rights statute that is on point, or a divine law.

My kid's private school has pretty much the opposite approach as MoCo -- eg, they're aggressive and all over this shit, and they aren't cowed into remaining hands off/ silent due to fear of litigation or hurt feelings. Yessss.

Here is Montgomery County's lice policy "that it made up for itself":

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/jpbrb.pdf

And here is the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation the policy refers to:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/2/392.full

The AAP says:

1. Screening for nits alone is not accurate
2. There is no proof that screening for live lice affects head lice incidence in schools over time.
3. Screening for live lice is not cost-effective.
4. Keeping kids out of school for nits leads to many kids missing school unnecessarily.
5. The contagiousness of head lice in classrooms is low.

Your school is a private school and can do whatever it wants. But I'm happy to learn that MCPS is basing its policy on actual evidence.

(Drat, now my head is itchy.)

[Anonymous]

Thank you PP. Excellent post.^^^

[Anonymous]

It's "illegal" only in the sense that it would go against Montgomery Co's policy that it made up for itself. It's not like there some civil rights statute that is on point, or a divine law.

My kid's private school has pretty much the opposite approach as MoCo -- eg, they're aggressive and all over this shit, and they aren't cowed into remaining hands off/ silent due to fear of litigation or hurt feelings. Yessss.


Here is Montgomery County's lice policy "that it made up for itself":

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/jpbrb.pdf

And here is the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation the policy refers to:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/2/392.full

The AAP says:

1. Screening for nits alone is not accurate
2. There is no proof that screening for live lice affects head lice incidence in schools over time.
3. Screening for live lice is not cost-effective.
4. Keeping kids out of school for nits leads to many kids missing school unnecessarily.
5. The contagiousness of head lice in classrooms is low.

Your school is a private school and can do whatever it wants. But I'm happy to learn that MCPS is basing its policy on actual evidence.

That was a pretty good Washington-style effort on your part, to hide the truth by burying the details that don't support your premise.

Here's what you chose not to include, which I will now helpfully provide from the very same AAP paper:

A. Routine classroom lice/nit screening is discouraged, however, it is "prudent to check other children who were most likely to have had direct head-to-head contact with the infested child."

B. "One way to deal with the problem" (WHICH MONTGOMERY COUNTY HAS DECIDED AGAINST, HENCE THE OP'S POST) "is to notify parents or guardians of children in an infested child's classroom " that their anonymous classmate has lice, and "encourag(e) all children to be checked" at home, and treated, before returning to school.


MoCo picked and chose from among reasonable AAP recommendations. Some parents stuck in the vortex cycle of surprise lice infestations every month of so wish MoCo had chosen different and still very reasonable protocol used by other enlightened school jurisdictions. Based on the points above, initially omitted by rebutting PP.

[Anonymous]

I always had my kids hang their jackets/gloves/hats off their chair or stuff them in the backpack. It was the crowded cubbies that freaked me out. It seemed to help because we stopped coming home with lice after that.

[Anonymous]

We recently found lice on my daughter over break. I later found out that there was a case at the school in Dec, but was told that MCPS doesn't send home notices. I now wonder how many other children have it?

The school policy is "nit" free before you can return, but how come the school doesn't inform you when there are outbreaks so you can inspect and treat early before it gets out of hand? If the regulation states that every effort should be made to minimize time away from school and to expedite treatment of those students who have head lice infestations, then why not send home an anonymous note after 1 case? I have been able to find out if the absences are excused or not?

I wished that someone would do a study on how much money people spend to treat lice and how much money parents lose in lost wages from work.

This is a partnership and the schools could do more in education and prevention. I don't recall receiving the L-6 Lice Alert and/or the Head Lice Fact Sheet at the begining of school or as needed as it's written in the policy. It's easy to get complacent if you don't hear of any cases. I will be more preventative and cautious.