BY TIMOTHY LA ROCHE
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CLAREMONT — School officials are poised to reopen discussions about the district’s head lice policies this week amid continuing criticism about its effectiveness in preventing outbreaks.
The Claremont School District’s current head lice policy, adopted in 2013, does not include provisions for school-wide lice screening. Furthermore, the policy advocates against so-called “no nit” policies that exclude students from attending school until they have found to be lice free.
“The student should be allowed to remain in the classroom provided the student is comfortable,” the policy states. “The child should be discouraged from head to head contact with others. The child may return to school the following day.”
The Claremont School Board is scheduled to revisit the topic at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Stevens High School Auditorium. Child care will be provided for parents in attendance.
Out of 111 New Hampshire schools that responded to a head lice survey last year, only eight schools responded that their policies bar students with head lice from returning to school before the lice have been killed. The same survey found that 67 schools do not send home letters to parents of non-affected students when lice has been found.
Both the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Centers for Disease Control, the New Hampshire Department of Education and the National Association of School Nurses advise against no nit policies, citing little potential benefit in return for excluding a child from school.
“School staff need to ensure student confidentiality is maintained and should not segregate or in any way embarrass the child,” New Hampshire Department of Education guidelines state. “There is no research data that demonstrates that enforced exclusion policies are effective in reducing the transmission of lice.”
However, some school districts in the state have opted to continue no nit policies as a way to cut down on head lice transmission rates. In Manchester, the state’s largest city, school district policies adopted in April 2016 continue to send students home who have head lice.
“Parents/guardians will be notified if their child has live head lice and the child will be sent home,” Manchester’s policy states. “The student may be readmitted after appropriate treatment and an examination by the school nurse confirms the elimination of all active head lice.”
In August, Claremont board members opened discussions on the policy after several parent complaints. At the urging of school nurse Janine Riley, the board did not revise the policy.
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