Parents scratching their heads at school district’s lice policy

IDAHO FALLS — Bleaching the house, washing bedding in piping hot water, boiling brushes, and burning all of your hats and hoodies — well maybe not that last one. These to-do’s are all on the checklist for parents cleaning every inch of their house if their kids ever come home with head lice.

“It’s been a nightmare. I am just at my wits end with it,” parent Jessica Perez said.

Idaho Falls native Jessica Perez said she’s been dealing with head lice in her home for several weeks. She feels it’s been an uphill battle since her her nine-year-old daughter brought it home from school.

“Its never been in our house before this school year,” Perez said. “I mean it’s hours and hours, and shampoo after shampoo after shampoo. It’s expensive. It took me, just this last week, four hours total to do her hair.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes the louse as a small insect, “Roughly two to three millimeters long. Head lice infest the head and neck and attach their eggs to the base of the hair shaft. Lice move by crawling; they cannot hop or fly. Head lice infestation… is spread most commonly by close person-to-person contact.” People often suspect head lice if the there is irritability, or an itching sensation on their scalp or neck.

Already this year, Perez’s daughter came home with head lice four times. It was after the fourth time that Perez thought it best to contact her daughters school — an elementary school in Idaho Falls School District 91.

“The first couple times it happened I’m like, well she’s a kid, she goes to school it happens kids get lice. But the fourth time it happened I called the school and said, ‘Hey is there something going on?’”

After contacting the school a secretary informed Perez that students in other grade levels had gotten lice. Perez was also told that the school only notifies parents if there is a case of lice within the grade their child is attending.

If a child is found to have lice it is up to the parents to decide whether or not their child will stay home. Students within District 91 are not restricted from school if they have the head lice infestation.

“Even if they find it they are not allowed by policy to send that child home, because it’s not life threatening to the other students,” Perez said. “Even if I knew my daughter had it, I could still choose to send her to school having it, with no repercussions.”

District 91 spokeswoman Margaret Wimborne said children getting head lice isn’t unique to D91, or Idaho for that matter, it’s a common problem across the country. Because lice isn’t a disease, or known to spread disease they can’t ask parents to quarantine their kids.

Regardless, parents are still unhappy about the district’s policy and feel schools within the district should take more action against infestations. Parents are complaining that although the kids are separated during the day, children from all grades intermingle before and after school hours. They feel notification by grades isn’t enough of a preventative measure.

“We follow guidance from the CDC. They regard lice as a nuisance,” Wimborne said. “I don’t want to underestimate the unpleasantness, but it hasn’t been shown to spread disease.”

The CDC does warn however, that “secondary bacterial infection of the skin resulting from scratching can occur with any lice infestation.”

Wimborne said both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) advocate that “no-nit” policies should be discontinued.

The “no-nit” policy requires a child to be nit (louse eggs) free before attending school. This advocation against the “no-nit” policy is confirmed on the CDC’s site. It reports the policy should be done away with for several reasons, one of them being, “Nits are cemented to hair shafts and are very unlikely to be transferred successfully to other people.

Wimborne said it could be doing more harm than good to keep children from gaining their education.

Although students within District 91 aren’t excluded from school, administrators still take steps to keep the lice from spreading. Wimborne said there isn’t a written policy for head lice but that doesn’t mean the issue is disregarded.

She said parents are notified and given the steps for treatment. They are encouraged to have their kids start treatment right away.

“We also take steps to reduce the likelihood of lice spreading, such as discouraging the sharing of personal items, such as combs and brushes and hats, and other clothing,” Wimborne said.

Other school districts in eastern Idaho are more strict with their lice policy such as Bonneville Joint School District 93, Jefferson County School District 251, Madison School District 321 and Pocatello/Chubbuck District 25.

For example Jefferson’s policy states:
“Any student found to have head lice will be removed from the classroom with their belongings. The parent/guardian and/or listed emergency contact will be contacted so they can pick up the student and begin treatment immediately. A student suspected of infestation will not ride the bus.”

Students may return to school upon successful completion of lice treatment.

Bonneville District 93’s policy states that a letter regarding required treatment will be sent home with the child. The letter says to treat head lice with: “A pediculicide such as Rid, Nix, Pronto, or Clear to eliminate the lice.” The policy continues to say a child will be excluded from school until they are nit and lice free. Students who have had “close contact with infected persons will be examined as well.

For Pocatello/Chubbuck District 25 parents are required to complete a certification program. They must indicate their completion of the steps taken to rid of the lice prior to the students return to school.

Most regional school districts have written policies in place stating that students are not allowed to return to school unless they are fully rid of the lice infestation.

Administrators at Madison School District 321 said they follow the guidelines of the Eastern Idaho Public Health Center, which follow the guidelines of the CDC. Madison School District has verbal procedures and they inform parents that kids cannot return to school unless they are lice-free.

Perez and other parents hope District 91 will adopt alike policies. She said when she was a young student they were required to stay home, and she feels that is the best way to keep lice from spreading.

“I love the school, my kids have gone there for years but their policy in general I just think needs to be different. It’s never gonna go away if they keep just allowing these kids to come in that have head lice and are obviously passing it on to other students,” Perez said.

Lice can takes weeks to fully be rid of. Most lice treating shampoos are made to kill live lice, but not nits. Remove louse eggs with a nit comb every few days to prevent reinfestation.

The CDC’s site states that lice don’t survive long if they fall off a person and cannot feed. Therefore, people don’t need to spend a lot of time or money on house cleaning activities.

To learn more of how to treat head lice go to the CDC’s website.