How do people feel about a school that has known about a kid who has had head lice for months?

Question

the school is aware that this child has had head lice however has never sent her home and demanded it be taken care of before she returns to school.The parents keep saying they have treated her however after every head check she still has lice and remains in the classroon.This is a kindergarten class!!!!

wow thank you all for all the responses,I have an open mind and respect each and every answer...I live in Canada and all the regulations differ however this poor little gilr has had lice since school began sadly the school year has come to an end...imagine how everyone is feeling with such a long period of infestation.I sure hope come next September we are not faced with this problem.I hope I answered some of the questions to your responses.Again thank you!

Answer 1

I am very familiar with the procedures for lice. In my daughters school if the teacher notices a kid scratching his/her head continually she is required to send the kid to the nurse. The kid would be send home immediately. The nurse was then required to check the heads of all kids in that grade. Not just that class but the entire grade. They figure they can catch them all and get rid of the problem. They found them on my daughter this way. The kid can not return to school until the nurse goes through the kid's head and is certain there are no live lice or nits. My daughter had 1 nit and she had to go home. I missed a lot of work that year. My daughter had extremely long thick hair and regardless of how many times I went over the house, spraying for louse she still got them. I would put all toys in trash bags for two weeks, vaccum all the furniture and floors, wash coats, all lienen washed and I would do the car too. I braided her hair every day and she still managed to get lice three more times that year. No one else in our family ever got lice which makes me believe she got them from school. I'm only saying this so that you know it is not the parent's fault. I believe the school did exactly what they should do. Unfortunately these things are very difficult to get rid of. I finally cut my daughter's hair and she never got them again. Who knows if that is the reason or not.
Has the kid had the lice the entire time or has she/he been treated but caught them again? It would be intolerable for a kid to have them for that long. My daughter maybe had them for two weeks at the most when she was going out of her mind scratching. The laws have changed and the school does not have to send the child home for lice. My school district has its own policy. If you don't like the policy that your school has you should get on the PTA and help to make the change. The school nurse told me use hairspray on my daughter's hair. She said it helps to prevent catching them.

Answer 2

This is terrible! City and state? I heard/read a report about Los Angeles Unified relaxing their standards on lice issues.....due to loss of moneys when kids are out from having lice. Do you know that in Ca. schools get about $100.00 per student per day? That is for an average normal kid.......lets not even talk about kids who are SDC (special day class), RSP (not SDC but need extra help) GATE (Gifted And Talented Education), ESL (English as a Second Language) and the COUNTLESS other programs out there.

I would call the District office (DO) and DEMAND a lice check in the child’s class....and once again in CA the school is SUPPOSE to send out a letter to EACH student in the class every time lice is found on a child. Now they can't and quite honestly shouldn't tell who the kid is...but we all can ask our kid who was there and then left in the middle of the day. If the DO doesn't take care of the problem....and I would tell them the story to best of your knowledge.......I would call the health department and I would go to the school board meeting and disclose the info as well. The school board should get the ball rolling...trust me, they have a lot of power and everyone starts a shaken when they walk around.

YOU are the customer in this situation.....and I know we are all afraid our kids will be miss treated when WE are the squeaky wheel, but take it from a squeaky wheel AND a school employee........they (school employees) get to the point where they would rather just do what you want than listen to you squeak....which is the point.

I know I went on and on.....but you did say kindergarten....you are just starting out on this journey we call "public Education" and I thought I would give you a little more.

Answer 3

She might be picking it up somewhere other than home. Does she go to daycare or a play group. If so you need to talk to them, this could be the source. Make sure you are washing her bedding, special blankets, stuffed toys, coats, sweaters, hats, etc. Anything like that that she comes into contact with needs treated. You also need to make sure you are retreating even if you see no signs. If you have toys that cannot be washed put them in a leaf bag (big black ones) and tie shut put in a closet for 2 weeks the bugs will die. You should also treat carpets and rugs with the powder oh and don't forget the mattress. I have also heard that blow drying hair helps. We had an outbreak at school and the source was the coat rack. One little girl was bringing them in on her coat and those that hung next to her kept getting them. We had to bag everyones coats and bags as the entered the room. It was very hard to keep under control.

Answer 4

This is quite common, it always seems that the same kids keep bringing it back each month. Very Very gross this has to mean that the whole family has it by now and all the stuff in their house.
I'm itchy nowwwwwwwwwww....
Unfortunately I'm sure it's one of those situations where each month they check, send her home, they wash, she comes back clean (for now) and then gets reinfested back at home. Tho this is unfair to everyone else, the school is probally afraid to single her out until the next months head check or dare they be sued for picking on the poor girl.

Answer 5

The school Nurse and Administration are required to alert the parent and attempt for the child to be pick-up. The parent should treat the child before sending them back to school. BUT most schools cannot suspend a child for something like that. It's up to the parent really.

Answer 6

I had the same thing happen when my daughter was in 2nd grade the school didn't want to do anything about it. I was going to call the Health Board for my county, but they finally did something about it. The entire school was infested (it was a small private school only about 100 students) but the second time my child came home with it I was angry. If they don't do anything I would report it to the Health Board.

Answer 7

How I feel is that this is wrong, but there have been changes to the rulings and Lice is not a "reportable condition" any more.
The health department and school may not have the power to order the child home now.

Answer 8

Normally social services would be contacted and they would probably deal with it after 3 complaints. But I'm in Canada working as a Social Worker, so things may differ in the US. Even between provinces here there are differences.

Answer 9

Been there. We took a can of the spray for the mats and the floors to the teacher and made sure other parents were around when we gave it to her. When they are that young they all roll around on the floor and carpets have to be treated too.

Answer 10

This school should be reported to the Health Dept. If something like this is going on who knows what other diseases they're not "worried" about. As A parent I would be very upset knowing something like that was going on.