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Please remember to periodically check your student’s head and hair for lice and nits. It is especially important to check after breaks such as after winter or spring break. These break times are when children are more likely to have had sleepovers or visit relatives. Students then return to school, and are identified with lice. The school is not usually the cause of the infestation, but rather the location of identification. Listed below are some common questions:
- How do I check my child for nits and lice? See recommendations from the CDC website for diagnosing head lice.
- What do I do if I find nits and lice? If you find lice or nits (the small eggs which lice lay on hair) on your child, please let the Health Office staff know. That way, the staff can check other close contacts of your child at school (such as children who sit close to your child, play often with your child, or with whom they share a locker). This gives us a better chance to prevent more spreading. We do not share your child’s name with other children or families.
- How do I treat head lice? Call you school health office, call your healthcare provider or go to the CDC website and see treatment for head lice.
- How do we prevent the spread of head lice? Although nothing can ensure that your child will not be exposed to head lice, there are a few things that can reduce your child’s chances of getting head lice. Your child should:
- Avoid head-to-head (hair to hair) contact during play and other activities at home, school and elsewhere (sports activities, playground, slumber parties, or camp)
- Not share items such as hats, scarves, coats, hair ribbons, combs, brushes or towels.
- Who can I go to in the school for advice about head lice? School nurses are experts at identifying and treating head lice and we welcome any questions.
Just a reminder that we no longer routinely send home letters if a student in your child’s classroom has lice. This is consistent with national recommendations. Sending home letters has been found to not help find more cases of lice, and it can violate a student’s privacy and contribute to bullying.
Please know that we track cases of lice at school and if there is a trend in a certain classroom, we will then send home letters. The good news is that lice is not a bigger problem than usual at Franklin or Randall. The best advice, though, is to periodically check your child, and if you see them itching more than usual or if you have any concerns, let us know & we’re happy to check them.
Nurse Amber