Union Public School District is revising its handbook procedure for dealing with head lice after some students were returned to school with nits still present.
In a Board of Trustees meeting Monday, Superintendent Tyler Hansford explained the district had been dealing with repeated cases of lice due to a loophole in the policy.
“We’ve had several reoccurring cases within the same people,” he said. “Specifically, in Pre-K.”
Previously, the district’s procedure demanded parents and guardians provide proof the infestation was treated, however Elementary School principal Lori Wilcher said that hasn’t been enough.
“Our problem is, is because we don’t have a no nit policy, if we don’t find live bugs, we don’t really have a leg to stand on to say, ‘You can’t come to school,’” she said. “It doesn’t say no nits. It says if you have them, you have to prove that you treated them.”
Unfortunately, Wilcher said, there is no way for school officials to know if any nits, which are lice eggs, they find are alive or dead, and over the counter treatments aren’t always 100 percent effective, leaving students to break out with lice again in a few days.
“I think where we are is, we wat to make it in addition to not being able to come back with actual lice, going a step further and say you can’t have nits,” Hansford said.
Full lice and nit treatments can be expensive, Hansford said, and while UPSD doesn’t want to put additional strain on parents, the district has a duty to protect the children in its care.
“We certainly want to be conscientious of everybody’s situation, but I think we have a duty to make sure we’re doing due diligence and protecting other people’s children from that when we know that it’s going on,” he said.
The handbook procedure does allow for two excused absences for treating head lice, Hansford said, and administrators can grant additional days at their discretion.
The board agreed the procedure should be changed to state students must be clear of both head lice and nits before returning to school.
