The DOE has issued a new head lice policy. If your child has nits they are still allowed in school. So when a whole class is scratching their heads in unison does the teacher know it is because of a louse epidemic or are they wondering if the children are perplexed by the lesson.
What a lousy (no pun intended, okay yes it was) plan, but then again the DOE is all about lousy plans arent' they?
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Perhaps KleinBloomGarten are so collectively stupid that they don't know basic facts about lice. NITS ARE LICE EGGS!! LICE EGGS GENERALLY LEAD TO MORE ADULT LICE. They are highly communicable. This will lead to lice infestations of unknown magnitude. What's next, TB in my classroom? Measles? Mumps? How idiotically insane this is!!
Are you kidding me? I am speechless.
Let's send some nits over to Bloomie's townhouse, and Klein's Park Avenue condo.
I wish I was kidding, but here is a letter to All Principals dated September 2007 from the Office of School Health. I found it on the DOE website. I still think it is a stupid policy.
Head Lice Policy (All schools)
There is now a “no head lice” policy for all NYC public schools, but no longer a “no nit” policy. Students found to have live head lice will be excluded from school and not allowed to return until they are lice-free. Students will be reexamined in 14 days to confirm that they have remained lice-free. Students with nits and no evidence of live head lice will not be excluded from school.
Studies have shown that school-wide screenings for nits are time consuming, costly, and ineffective. Nits are not equivalent to head lice and should not result in school exclusion or a school-wide surveillance initiative. On the other hand, “no head lice” policies are endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, and the National Association of School Nurses. Similar policies have been adopted successfully by school systems throughout the country.
Please work closely with your school nurse to train staff to conduct head lice inspections. The school nurse is the best resource for educating parents and teachers about head lice. For more information about this new policy, please read the memo available at the following link (click here).
For additional information, contact Dr. Oxiris Barbot at obarbot@schools.nyc.gov or (212) 442-1709. For questions on policy implementation, please contact your ISC Health Director or regional nursing director.
That's crazy to say that school wide head checks didn't help keep the number of head lice cases at school down!! I completely understand your frustration mom. For real help with head lice visit www.licesolutions.org If you have any questions or concerns feel free to email me abby@licesolutions.org
Lice are not a health hazard. Kids should not miss school because of lice. If the American Acadamy of Pediatrics has researched the subject and decided that no nit policies are not effective, you should do your research and learn why you should also support no nit policies. Lice are not a health hazard, just like pimples. If parents take the responsibility to deligently check their kids, like they do for ticks, which can be personally deadly, then you will discover lice before the school does. This should be a parental duty, not left up to large school systems to manage. Lice are not a health hazard.
Left up to parents? Don't you know that head lice is the number 1 reason for school absences? As the only non profit head lice awareness and control center in the US Lice Solutions has 2 facilities and treats hundreds of cases of head lice each week! The answer is for parents and school faculty to work together to find an answer- not blame each other! With programs centered around school Lice Solutions can effectively treat families for lice and send them back to school with minimum time missed. There is a way for people to work together for a lice free America! www.licesolutions.org
2001, NCLB was created. 2002, Feds & Prin’s Assoc turned to the AAP b/c children miss too much school b/c of head lice. AAP suggested 3 things b/c they have no solution: get rid of head lice checks, no-nit policies and keep using pesticides. Since this time we are seeing schools close down across the country, parents being outright lied too, Prin’s & Dept of Ed’s misinterpreting the NCLB saying it’s a “new” state law , Feds deny any connection between our policies disappearing and this ACT (not law), we keep hearing lice is not a disease but a nuisance and saying they can not send home children with head lice. Shame on them all!
None of the above is a solution for us parents and our children! Head lice is a communicable disease, highly contagious, much more than a nuisance (ask anyone who has gone through it), causes secondary infections, pesticides have been failing for years, there is little hands on help, schools CAN send children home from school till lice and nits are gone (and should), keeping them in school with nits is like playing a game of duck duck goose but in this case nit nit lice. There is no state law b/c I have gone to an atty and used open records on our school back in Dec 05. Main reason our policies are leaving our schools is b/c of the very fear they will not receive the much needed state funding which comes from the Feds...remember these are our tax dollars! I had a parents tell me in MN that the Supr in their school told them to their face, they could not receive Title 1 or 2 funding if they keep head lice policies. Another reason, is b/c our schools are all taking the poor advice from the AAP. Why can’t we use safe, accurate guidelines/recommendations from LICE EXPERTS like Katie below? Something stinks besides these failing pesticides! I know we can still take the much needed funds from our states and still have head lice checks and no-nit policies, because we do in our school and I fought to keep them. I've been helping with school wide head lice checks since 2005 and in 2006 started to help families get past head lice for free to parents and their children in our school.
Check into your state health code, is your school complying? PA wasn't in 2006. Contact your legislatures, it helped those in PA, can't say I've had that help here in WI but I continue to push for it (they can't hide forever behind that curtain). Seek help from an atty (some do have a heart-pro bono), stand firm, speak up in numbers and refuse to buy into this inexcusable and unacceptable "new" lice info. Contact Katie Shepherd of Lice Solutions in FL (National known Lice Expert), www.licesolutions.org or 561-842-9969. In Oct, Katie was invited to the Meeting of the Minds in Argentina, she was 1 of 110 top lice experts from 22 different countries. In June, she was invited to speak at the National Assoc of School Nurses in TN. Katie is all about education, awareness, safe products (non pesticide), works with several Universities throughout the US and HELPING us parents. Gosh, image someone that actually wants to help us parents with head lice, so much that she deals with head lice every day! You are hearing one side of head lice (Not Proactive) from your schools and your state, PLEASE do your homework and call Katie today and decide for yourself & your children what is safe and in their best. Our children are counting on us! Have faith because things can get better, I'm proof of that here in WI and couldn't ask for a better NEW PROACTIVE school nurse and Supr.
Kelly Addison
Reeseville WI
920/382-4056
I heard a very informative debate on this recently between.Deborah Altschuler and Dr. Ronald Hansen M.D. It was called Cooties: Is school Exclusion Necessary? Appropriate? Legal? Both sides make some good points. Here is a link to the interview.
http://tinyurl.com/makb8o
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