Dear Parents, Guardians and Staff,
The Board of Education’s Policy Committee recently reviewed District 58’s existing lice communication practices and recommended an update. Effective this month, we will notify parents when there is one confirmed case of lice in their child’s grade. If there is more than one confirmed case in your school, across multiple grade levels, we will send a message home to the entire school. This notification may come either as a standalone email or within the weekly school newsletter.
To protect student privacy, District 58 previously would only send a parent notification when a cluster of lice cases was identified in a grade level. However, the Board’s Policy Committee advocated for increased lice parent communication after receiving parent feedback regarding this issue.
Here is some additional information regarding lice:
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between six and 12 million children have lice each year.
- Although lice can be the source of anxiety, frustration and embarrassment, lice do not carry infectious diseases, nor do they pose a health risk to students and staff. For these reasons, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the DuPage County Health Department recommend that schools do not exclude children with lice from the classroom.
- If a child has lice in his or her hair, the nurse will contact that child's parent to discuss treatment options and next steps. Children continue to participate in expected classroom activities after the school nurse has provided additional education, reminding him or her of the strategies we teach all students to reduce the spread of lice (avoid head-to-head contact, avoid sharing hats, brushes, etc.) Parents are expected to treat the lice promptly.
- Lice are spread by direct and sustained head-to-head contact (i.e. children rubbing heads together for a sustained period of time), which is more common at slumber parties or camping trips than at school.
- Lice cannot jump or fly from head to head, and they die quickly when they are not attached to a human. This means they die quickly in hats and hairbrushes. However, we still recommend that children avoid sharing hats, combs and related personal items out of an abundance of caution.
- District 58 educates its students on how they can protect themselves from lice and discourages them from making direct head-to-head contact. The best offense is a good defense!
Visit District 58’s lice webpage to learn more about lice information, prevention and treatment. Please contact your school nurse or principal with questions or to notify us if you believe your child has lice. Thank you!