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Policy

Children with live lice will be sent home and may return to the classroom when lice are no longer active on the scalp. However, if a child as more than three days of absences due to head lice, the Health Team will be contacted so an individualized plan can be developed. The family and the classroom staff will develop a plan to prevent the spread of lice among the other children, while also enabling the affected child to attend school.

Procedure

  1. Direct Service Teams (D.S.T.s) will create a time and specific routine for performing regular head checks on children. Ideally this is done on a daily basis.
  2. If a child comes to school with live lice the parent(s) or one of the persons on the emergency consent form will be called to come and take the child home for treatment. If the child has been sent home for the day the parent will need to self transport the child to school and wait for their child’s head to be checked prior to classroom admittance.
  3. Each child going home for head lice treatment should be offered a HSOLC lice treatment kit containing hand sanitizer, a lice comb and information on use in both English and Spanish. Teachers can find up to date information in the Moodle lesson, “Head Lice in the Classroom”.
  4. Direct  service teams will work with the Health/Safety Consultant (HSC) and Health Specialist to ensure that parents receive the most current and safest information regarding the treatment and elimination of head lice. See Moodle lesson on Portal.
  5. If a classroom experiences multiple lice outbreaks, affecting many children- or if DST are unsure how to prevent Lice outbreaks, the Health Specialist or HSC should be contacted for further support.

This policy complies with Head Start Performance Standard 45CFR Section 1304.22 [4].
It was approved by Policy Council June 10, 1997. February 8, 2005
Revised June 3, 2001, July 2003. June 2009. June 2018. April 2021

1995-2021. Head Start of Lane County. All rights reserved.

REVIEWED: April 2021