• The goals of the District Lice Policy are to:

    1.  Decrease absenteeism

    2.  Support families in their efforts to control and eliminate lice

    3.  Maintain student privacy

    Current Lice Policy 5240.1

    In accordance with AAP and NASN recommendations, the School District does not perform lice screenings on a regular basis. Students that are referred to the health office having nits or live bugs found on them will be allowed to remain in school.  No students found having nits will be excluded from school. Students with live bugs must be treated prior to the return to school, however. Due to the low incidence of school transmission, they will be allowed to remain in school on the day of discovery and may return as soon as treatment is started.  In the rare occurrence of intense infestation, the School Nurse and District Physician may require the student start treatment prior to returning to class on the day of discovery.  Determination of the need to start treatment immediately is determined solely by the School Nurse and District Physician.  In rare cases of chronic or repeated infestation, the Administration may require documentation of treatment by a physician prior to the return to school.

    In order to support parents in understanding, identifying, and eliminating head lice, the District will maintain informational resources on its website related to the subject and provide parents of students found to have need of treatment with resources that include the life cycle, identification, prevention and treatment of head lice.

     

    It is the responsibility of the parents to treat this at home or hire a professional service. 

     

    The CDC and AAP recommendation is that students not be excluded from school because of lice. Pediculosis is considered a nuisance, but lice have not been shown to spread disease. In Scarsdale, our practice is that any student identified (with live lice or nits) may remain in school and receive treatment at the end of the day.  However, those students with live bugs are encouraged to start treatment immediately.  This is to protect confidentiality (younger students may march into class and announce proudly, "I have lice"), to prevent embarrassment, and to allow parents to get a jump start on treatment, which can be time-consuming.  

     

    http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/pediculosis/fact_sheet.htm