POLICY ON LICE
If a student comes to school and lice are detected, they and their belongings will be immediately isolated and they will be sent home. A note from school will be sent home to as wide of circle as possible of students’ families with whom the infected student had come in contact, alerting parents to check their own children.
The affected homeroom and locker area will be thoroughly vacuumed and all surfaces scrubbed. For the next seven days students will bag their belongings in drawstring bags to minimize contact.
The student must stay home 24 hours after they have been treated for lice with a lice-specific scalp treatment. When they return to school, they will be inspected for lice and nits in another room, before being allowed to go to their home room. If lice are found, parents will be notified to come take their child home for further treatment.
Below are some helpful guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website for parents’ review.
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Supplemental Measures : Head lice do not survive long if they fall off a person and cannot feed. You don’t need to spend a lot of time or money on housecleaning activities. Follow these steps to help avoid re-infestation by lice that have recently fallen off the hair or crawled onto clothing or furniture.
- Machine wash and dry clothing, bed linens, and other items that the infested person wore or used during the 2 days before treatment, using the hot water (130°F) laundry cycle and the high heat drying cycle. Clothing and items that are not washable can be dry-cleaned or sealed in a plastic bag and stored for 2 weeks.
- Soak combs and brushes in hot water (at least 130°F) for 5-10 minutes.
- Vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the infested person sat or lay. However, the risk of getting infested by a louse that has fallen onto a rug or carpet or furniture is very small. Head lice survive less than 1-2 days if they fall off a person and cannot feed; nits cannot hatch and usually die within a week if they are not kept at the same temperature as that found close to the human scalp. Spending much time and money on housecleaning activities is not necessary to avoid re-infestation by lice or nits that may have fallen off the head or crawled onto furniture or clothing.
- Do not use fumigant sprays; they can be toxic if inhaled or absorbed through the skin.