Atlanta Schools Head Lice Policy

lice professionals

Created on

March 27, 2017

Updated on

July 13, 2020

Generally schools in the Atlanta area are moving away from “no nit” policies.

DeKalb School Lice Policy

DeKalb Schools have a relatively lenient policy regarding admission to school with head lice. The DeKalb Department of Health recommends that no child be sent home based solely on nits. Letters to parents may be sent home if the number of cases exceeds a certain level. School health professional should recheck student a week to 10 days after identification. If live lice are found in the head, the parent should be notified by the end of the day. Information about lice should be sent home with the child. The child can return to school with nits if the child has been treated either with manual extraction or chemicals. “No nit” policies should be discouraged.

Cobb County School Lice Policy

The Cobb County web site states as follows “When a faculty member suspects the presence of lice, the student will be referred to the school nurse. The school nurse will confirm the presence of lice or nits on the suspected individual. If there should be difficulty in identifying the presence of lice or nits, the school nurse may then refer the student to the area consulting nurse for further evaluation. Infested students should be sent home immediately with the Pediculosis First Letter to Parent or Guardian and recommendations for treatment. Once a student is identified as being infested, the school nurse should check his/her siblings and the infested students sent home. If siblings attend another school, that school nurse will be notified to check the siblings.In elementary school, once a student is identified as being infested with live lice, the student will be sent home. If 10% of the student’s class is infested, all students in the class will be examined.” When the child returns to school, the student will be checked for live bugs and then checked again after 10 days.

Take a Look At Our Lice Checklist For Parents Below! However, there is not a “no nit” policy in place. “Parents must remove all the egg cases or nits from their child’s hair. The continued presence of egg cases or nits in a student’s hair after treatment is not a sufficient ground for denying him/her readmission to school unless the numbers of nits found are not consistently decreasing over a period of 7 days. However, remaining nits may hatch even after treatment. Parents should be encouraged to continue daily nit removal and alternative methods should be offered..If the student has not been satisfactorily treated for lice or nits, he/she will be refused readmission to school. Parent will be notified to take the student home and the Pediculosis Second Letter to Parent or Guardian will be sent home. After 3 consecutive live infestations, the school nurse will notify the area consulting nurse and administrator. The consulting nurse will contact parent for conference/discussion of a dialog exploring what steps were taken to treat the head lice. The consulting nurse will then assess the need for further education and contact the school social worker if necessary. The school social worker will be notified if the student stays out of school for an extended period of time due to head lice or for chronic cases of head lice. Principals have the authority to initiate a no nit policy for students with chronic cases of head lice.

Fulton County - City of Atlanta School Lice Policy

In Fulton County, including the city of Atlanta, there is not a “no nit” policy but parents are urged to treat their children immediately and then continue to check and treat for 10 days. They are encouraged to check children in bright light and remove nits remaining in the hair. All cases should be reported to the school so the “proper procedures will be taken in the classroom to prevent further spreading.”