HEAD LICE

If there is reason to suspect that head lice may be present in a classroom, inspections of students suspected of having head lice will be undertaken. If the child suspected of having lice shares a living environment with other student(s) in the school district, inspection of those students will also be undertaken. Schools within the district may need to collaborate in order to carry out inspections of students in multiple schools. Students found to have nits or live lice will be noted.

The parents of students found to have live lice will be notified by the end of the school day via phone, and will be given information about how to alleviate the problem. The parents of any students found to have only nits will be notified by letter sent home with the student, and information about how to alleviate the problem will go home with those students.  

If a student is found to have live lice, a bulletin will be sent home with all students in the affected class to notify parents that a case of live head lice was found in the class. If only nits are found, a bulletin is not required to be sent home.

Students found to have live lice will be checked again on a daily basis until there is no further sign of live lice infestations. If there is an indication of live head lice the student will not be admitted back into school until treatment has occurred. Should the head lice infestation continue to occur, it may be necessary to refer the student to the Public Health Service or a physician for further treatment. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of School Nurses no longer endorse a “No Nits” policy in schools. (Nits are head lice eggs.) 

PROCEDURE:

1.  The Health Aide, or other designee in the middle schools and high schools, will examine the head of any child suspected of having nits or live lice, as well as any other students in the school who share a living space of the child(ren) in question. The Health Aide or other designee may need to contact other schools if student shares a living environment with a student at another school.

1. 1. Upon notification of a suspected case of head lice, examination will take place by looking closely through the hair and scalp for live lice.
      
      
   2. If live lice or any nits are found in the hair, the parent/guardian will be notified no later than the end of the school day via phone. The parent/guardian will be provided information related to detection and methods of eliminating head lice.
      
      
   3. The student will remain in his/her class for the remainder of the school day.
      
      
   4. If a student is found to have live head lice a bulletin will be sent home with all students in the affected class to notify parents that a case of head lice was found in the class.  A full class inspection is at the discretion of the Health Aide or other designee.

B. Children returning to school after treatment for head lice will be examined by the Health Aide or other designee to verify absence of live lice prior to entering the classroom.

1. 1. At the beginning of the school day, examine student’s hair for presence of lice. Students are required to be free of live lice to return to school. If live crawling lice are found upon return to school, the parent/guardian should be notified that the student needs to be picked up and cannot return to school until treatment is started.
      
      
   2. The student will be allowed to remain in school if there is no presence of live crawling lice. Nits only are allowable.
      
      
   3. Parent/guardian will be encouraged to continue “Nit Picking” every night in addition to the initial treatment until nits are gone.
      
      
   4. The Health Aide or other designee will re-inspect the student’s hair and scalp daily after initial live lice infestation was found until all nits are gone or up to 10 days. If during any re-inspection live lice are found, parent will be notified and the live lice infestation process will start over.
       

C. The presence of nits does not indicate an active infestation.  No evidence is found that the presence of head lice correlates with any disease process, or that outbreaks of lice resulted when allowing students with non-viable nits to remain in class (Frankowski, Weiner, 2002)[1].

KETCHIKAN GATEWAY BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT
Adoption Date:  03/15/02
Revision Date: 4/11/2012
Revision Date: 8/8/2012
Revision Date: 9/25/2019