Speaking of Head Lice...

[DistrictNurse19]

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?

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Pediculosis

Read the entire position statement.

Here is part:

"Children found with live head lice should remain in class, but be discouraged from close direct head contact with others. The school nurse should contact the parents to discuss treating the child at the conclusion of the school day (Frankowski & Bocchini, 2010). Students with nits only should not be excluded from school (American School Health Association, 2005, Frankowski & Bocchini, 2010, Pollack, Kiszewski & Spielman, 2000), although further monitoring for signs of re-infestation is appropriate. It may be appropriate to screen other children who have had close head-to-head contact with a student with an active infestation, such as household family members, but classroom-wide or school-wide screening is not merited (Andresen & McCarthy, 2009). In cases that involve head lice, as in all school health issues, it is vital that the school nurse prevent stigmatizing and maintain the student’s privacy as well as the family’s right to confidentiality (Gordon, 2007). ...."

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

One more resource.

https://identify.us.com/idmybug/head-lice/head-lice-FAQS/index.html

[bleemadden]

I work at an Elementary school in a fairly large district. We do notify parents if children in the classroom have headlice but without the mentioning of names or severity. We are only required to send children home with live lice, but we give parents the option of taking their child home if only nits are found to start the removal process. If one child from a class is found to have lice, an entire classroom check is conducted right away. In all of my classroom lice checks, there have always been multiple kids. Teachers typically never put up a fight, and most of them participate in the classroom checks. We also pull siblings of children from an affected classroom just to double check... It's better to be safe than sorry!