Lice - how long to quarantine?

[tny915]

A girl in DD1's class was identified yesterday as having lice and was sent home at lunch. She was back in school today. DD1 told me the girl says she still has lice.

So how does this work in your school? Are kids normally kept home when they have lice? I'm surprised that the girl was allowed back so soon.

[Cam&Clay]

Over the past year, I have become somewhat of an expert on lice. It is not a job I wanted in the least.

Our school recently changed their policy. Students cannot be in school if they have active crawling lice in their hair. They can, however, be in school if they have nits, or eggs. They used to require "proof" that you treated the child, such as the empty box of Rid. They don't anymore.

We have been fighting lice off and on for almost a year with DS1. It's out of control. I just found out from a nurse that the health department here says that the lice in our area because this strain came most likely from El Salvador and are extremely resistant to over the counter meds. We have a huge Hispanic population in our county. DS1's class is more than half Hispanic and I would guess that 80% of them come from El Salvador.

I finally had to bite the bullet and get a prescription treatment. It was awful. I truly felt like I was pouring straight gasoline on his head. But it seemed to work...for now.

Anyway, if they didn't change the nits rule, DS1 would have missed half of last year. And we aren't the only middle-class family fighting this. It's all over everywhere around here.