Dilly Days with Beth and Joellyn: Authors of The InvestiGator Club™ for Robert-Leslie Publishing

One important means to control a head lice outbreak is communication with families and staff. The bottom line is this: staff and families must know when head lice are present in the school community so they can check their children and begin the eradication process if they find it.

Here are ideas for communicating with families:

• Each time a case of head lice is found, send home a note to that class, and to siblings’ classes.
• E-mail or send a weekly bulletin telling how many cases have been reported as well as “closed.”
• Invite a health-care professional to be a guest speaker at a special event.
• Respectfully ask all parents to notify you if their child or children are found to have head lice—even if it’s during a break or weekend and children have already been treated.

It’s important for administrators to have a Head Check and Lice Prevention Plan, preferably before a case of head lice is reported or discovered at school. Record your plan in writing and share it with families at the beginning of the school year. Keep these questions in mind as you craft a plan:

1. Will you require a “summer’s end” head check before school starts or before entering school—to minimize the number of students entering your building with lice? If so, consider setting up a special “head check” day where you bring in nurses or volunteers to check heads. Conduct the checks at least one week before school starts so families have time to treat heads before coming to school. Set up a policy for how to guide those who are found to have head lice.
2. Who will check heads during the school year? How will you check them? If you don’t have a nurse or healthcare personnel, consider forming a volunteer group who is trained by a local doctor or nurse to check heads.
3. What will be your “return to class” policy? Proof of treatment? Head check by a trained staff member to show there are “no nits”? Letter from home?
4. Will you check heads on a regular basis throughout the school year? Decide the best way to check heads so as not to disrupt class or scare the children. Decide how parents will be informed if a child is diagnosed. Decide what children will do before parents pick them up (if you require it).
5. Will you check heads only when a case is reported or found at school? If so, whom will you check: children in that class, classes with siblings, the whole school? Once reported or detected, be sure to have a trained staff member confirm the diagnosis, and later provide children with clearance to return to class.
   

Okay, so the topic of head lice isn’t fun to write about. It is, however, an increasingly important one for families and schools around the country. If you’ve ever had to get rid of them, you know what a huge pain it is. Wherever children come in contact with heads or hair, or with items that are on or near heads, the passing of head lice is possible.

The Internet is full of information about head lice and how it is detected, passed, and eradicated. Anyone who thinks his or her child might have head lice should visit these sites and do what they can to stop the cycle at home. After all, if children don’t come to school with head lice, it is less likely that head lice be passed during the school day.

While other grades and classes may have standard programs and procedures, preschools often do not have a school nurse or the healthcare staff needed to implement a head lice prevention system.

Over the next few days, we will post more information and suggestions about this ongoing problem. The intent of this blog series is to provide preschool administrators and staff with prevention and management ideas to minimize the spread of head lice and to keep schools free of the yucky little creatures.

Being a preschool teacher is the best job in the world—just ask anyone who does it! To welcome you back, Beth and I have come up with the following list:

1. You spend time with the most caring and honest people in the world.
2. You are never bored—everything is constantly changing (and you do at least ten things at once all day long).
3. You get to sing and dance for an appreciative audience.
4. You are surrounded by toys.
5. The books you read are far more interesting and entertaining than most adult fare.
6. You are immediately informed when your hair looks bad or you have a run in your stocking.
7. You get hugs instead of e-mails.
8. A good night’s sleep is had every night (due to exhaustion!).
9. You get to enjoy the great outdoors every day as you guide walks and supervise the playground.
10. You are making the world a better place, one child at a time.

Feel free to write back and add your own reasons. There are soooo many!