Speaking of Head Lice...

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My supervisor (non-nurse) does not feel it is appropriate to notify classmates families when a student in a classroom has active head lice. I disagree. As a parent, I would want to know if my children could possibly be exposed to head lice, so I could be checking their heads at home and treating ASAP if I found it. My boss believes that informing parents will damage the reputation of our school district and cause parents to freak out. What do you think?

While I see the point on some of the reasoning above, I still think it violates a student's privacy even if you don't name names. If a parent wants to call another parent, there's nothing I can do about it. We encourage all parents to check their children routinely, and the teachers do weekly checks. If nits are found, we have parent pick the child up, provide them an informational booklet, and answer any questions they may have. This protocol is explained in our student handbook, and on the school web site along with several informational sheets I hand out. I guess our school community assumes that lice are, unfortunately, a part of growing up in close quarters. To "alert" families I feel is somewhat inflammatory. If we did an "alert" every time I found an incident of head lice, in an elementary school of 1000 we'd be doing alerts daily, with lots of upset parents.

mc3

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Specializes in School Nurse, Maternal Newborn.
There is NO "Harvard protocol" on head lice. There never was a Harvard protocol on head lice. This is the greatest myth there is on the management of head lice. If your school is following what they believed to be a Harvard protocol you may have an opportunity to right the record and encourage safer measures.

"Because it's not about lice, it's about kids." www.headlice.org

I beg to differ: There WAS the Harvard School of Public Health protocol, headed by Richard Pollock. However, the site is no longer at Harvard's School of Public Health. However, the protocol IS what we have been using for year.

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Specializes in School Nurse, Maternal Newborn.
There is NO "Harvard protocol" on head lice. There never was a Harvard protocol on head lice. This is the greatest myth there is on the management of head lice. If your school is following what they believed to be a Harvard protocol you may have an opportunity to right the record and encourage safer measures.

"Because it's not about lice, it's about kids." www.headlice.org

That website, BTW, has the agenda to keep the lice hysteria going strong. Much of the information they offer is MISINFORMATION. I don't suppose that you noticed that they sell the "licemeister" comb? :cool:

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Specializes in Telemetry, Gastroenterology, School Nrs.

We don't notify parents here either. I will send a letter home stating a case has been identified but only if there is more than 2-3 in a classroom that have it.

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What do you do about repeat offenders? We have a family of 5, who the teachers are always sending to my office because they are constantly scratching and they have ALOT of nits. I have sent home notes, educated the kids & mom, but at least once a month one of those 5 kids is back in my office. I don't know what to do.

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Have you done a home visit? What do you mean when you say you "educated" mom?

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Specializes in School Nursing, Ambulatory Care, etc..
What do you do about repeat offenders? We have a family of 5, who the teachers are always sending to my office because they are constantly scratching and they have ALOT of nits. I have sent home notes, educated the kids & mom, but at least once a month one of those 5 kids is back in my office. I don't know what to do.

is it just nits? in my district, we don't have a no nit policy, so just nits wouldn't pose a problem. when I was at the elementary school, I had a family of chronic licers - i finally stopped sending them home. The teacher(s) and I worked together to make sure the little girls kept their hair pulled back and we educated them not to share jackets, hats, etc. If there was a problem, I would send the "your child needs to be treated" letter home and call the parent to let them know. At some point, keeping these kids in school is more important.

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I am in TN as well... My school health coordinator just told me today that the policy would be changing. I'm not sure what exactly will change. I am conflicted as to how I feel about the change. I do hate to see kids get sent home day after day after DAY over it though... I had a student miss over 30 days this past year due to head lice. Day 2 of school this year = she was sent home with nits. :( This morning (Day 3) I sent her back home. Do you know where I can read about the law change? I'd like to see what it says for myself instead of second hand info. I feel left out of school policy change sometimes and I think on this one, I need to have a finger in it ;) hehe

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Due to state law changes in TN, we no longer even do classroom head checks on a regular basis. Children can not be excluded from any class activity and can not be sent home for active head lice infestation. If a child is suspected to have head lice, the entire class must be checked at that time and if anyone does have it, I call their parents. It's their choice if they want to pick their child up, but I can't tell them one way or another. I do send home information on how to get rid of the lice effectively.

I meant to quote the above on the last comment that I posted.

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Specializes in Peds, MH, Corrections, School, Tele.

Am I the only one with an itchy head reading this thread? At my school we send a letter home to all the classmates. If we discover lice in 2-3 students in one class we will do a head check of the entire class. This is a public health issue and if we do not notify the parents of a potential infestation then how can we get the problem under control.

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Am I the only one with an itchy head reading this thread?

Nope.

I think I'm scratching hard enough to draw blood soon....

I don't have kids, but my nephew comes over for lunch a lot... I'd be bloody furious if the kid was sent home with even a chance of a head full of critters and nothing said.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

It is a public health issue of sorts... but at the end of the day it's a nuisance - not a disease. And furthermore, most cases of headlice aren't transmitted in school and most kids that are found to have lice in school have probably been infested for some time. This is not to say that heads shouldn't be checked and that notifications needn't be made appropriately - both of those things should definitely be done, but it's high time that parents take some responsibility for their kids and check their kids heads on a regular basis. You don't have to be a nurse to look through a head of hair.

We had an issue where a single student was sent home in my old district and the PARENTS went on facebook and posted the name of the infested kid

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