Lincoln CountyR3 Head Lice Procedures 

1. Students with live lice (bugs) will need to be picked up by a parent at their earliest convenience. Students may go back to class until they are picked up. When live lice are found, the school contacts the parents via phone that day and informs them of the findings.
2. Students may return to school as soon as proper treatment has begun. Students will need to stop at the nurse’s office before going to class each day for 3 days and then every other day for 7 days. Parents are NOT required to bring their student to the nurse’s office for these checks. Students will be allowed to ride the bus to and from school
3. Students with nits are allowed to stay at school for the remainder of the day. Parents will be notified of the nits, via phone or letter sent home with student
4. The Lincoln County R3 School District does NOT do whole class or whole school lice checks nor will a parent request to check another student (unrelated to the parent) from their student’s class be granted.
5. Parent handouts will be sent home to the entire class when a student is found to have an infestation of lice (live lice found). If multiple kids in the same class are found to have an infestation during the same week, the parent handout will only go out once in that week.

This policy is based on best practices involving lice detection, transmission and treatment. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in all of its published journals & articles state that head lice move by crawling, they cannot hop or fly. Head lice are spread by direct contact with the hair of an infested person, therefore anyone who comes in head-to-head contact with someone who already has head lice is at greatest risk. Spread by contact with clothing (such as hats, scarves, coats) or other personal items (such as combs, brushes, or towels) used by an infested person is uncommon. The CDC also states that nits are "very unlikely to be transferred successfully to other people" — which has led to many schools across the nation dropping their no-nit policies. Another intention of the policy is to help keep children from missing class, shield children with lice from embarrassment and protect their privacy. Our policy is based on current research around best practices along with ensuring the social/emotional well-being of our students.