Sending children home with Headlice

[Itscoldoutside01]

I am interested to know if this is common in UK Primary Schools. I just received an email from my child’s state school informing us that a child had been sent home with Headlice as per the school’s policy and could we all check our children. I check my child regularly so that's fine but I feel uncomfortable that they single out and exclude a child for this. Just wondered what happens in other schools.

No that's never happened in my dcs school as far as a know. They send out a letter to let everyone know but they never say who it is.

They should exclude them. Then maybe the parents that don't give a shit might sort their kids out.

Not to us either. If our school spot a case, they send a text to all parents to check, condition & comb. They wouldn’t single out a specific child. Not only is that nasty, it’s also completely ineffective.

I wonder whether this is just about the wording "sending home a child with headlice" could just be the school's way of saying we have informed a parent at the end of the school day that their child has the problem.

My children's school did this a couple of years ago. Their policy was that if they saw live lice in a child's hair then they would contact their parents and send them home and they couldn't return until they'd been treated. This policy lasted 6 months. Since it was overturned my children have had lice loads of times because they keep getting reinfected.

It's very unusual these days but was standard when I was a child. The teachers were very discreet about it. In fact I didn't realise I'd been sent home with nits as a child until my mum told me! I do remember the school telling us all that nits liked clean hair so they weren't a sign you were dirty/anything to be ashamed off. I wish we had a similar approach now rather than a text or letter sent out to everyone that most people ignore.

Good! It's a good thing and might help irradiate this infection once and for all. Costs a fortune in treatment and time.

Ds's school will send a child home if they see a live crawly one on their head.

That’s interesting. I totally understand the school wishing to deal swiftly with the problem but if a child has Lice badly enough for them to be visibly crawling through their hair it’s pretty likely that other kids will have them too - and singling out the one child ( the kids in the class are all aware of who it is) and for them to miss nearly a day of school seem to be quite shaming.

My DS had them and we were informed at the end of the day, treated them, the treatment didn't work so a week later (as we were thinking, we should check tonight) he was sent home in the middle of the afternoon.
I picked him up having stopped at the chemist, I was WFH that day, treated him, left him watching the ipad for 30 mins while it worked, rinsed, and sent him back.
Fortunately however we had not both commuted by train to 1+ or 2+ hours away as that happens some days.

A child can have lice for up to 3 months before they become noticeable, and some people don't itch. So sending home is completely ineffective.

Itused to be the case, but I'd thought it had stopped.

I think in the case I am aware of at ds's school the lice were being commented on by other childten and it was really in the best interests of the child to send them home and support the family in treating them.

I think that if you saw a whole childs head moving, which happens when they hatch, hundreds sometimes then you would want to be contacted as a parent.

We call and tell the parents but don't insist that they are collected. The other children notice as well, so the child is already singled out. It is usually another child who comments and points it out.

Having headlice hopping about in your hair, that are clearly visible, is quite shaming in itself though, isn’t it?

Being sent home to be treated, hopefully before too many others notice, is kinder to the affected child and to those families who are sick and tired of this recurring problem.

They are infectious. Children who are in any way infectious should not be in school.

I suspect the parents will have been notified in the past and it is a recurring problem. Still out of order punishing the child to get to the parents, but some school will use the inconvenience of leaving work to pick up the child as a way to push the parents into action.

I just hope the school is on the ball enough to know if it's lazy parenting or lack of money for treatment, and if the latter offer support.