Head Lice Checks

If it is determined that a student cannot return to the dorms, they will stay in designated on-campus administrative housing with support from on-call medical and nursing staff. If a student is exempt from returning to the dorm within 24 hours, the family’s designated Off-Campus Accommodation will be contacted. The designated person should be available to pick-up the child within 24 hours of notification by The Bement School.

Head Lice Checks

School Health Services promotes evidence-based practices in the treatment and management of head lice; and follows the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for control of head lice infestation. If a student is found to have an active case of head lice, the student will need to be treated at home, but he/she will not be prohibited from attending school. A common-sense approach to managing infestations in a school environment is applied in assessing each case. Classroom screenings are not necessary, but close contacts of the affected child will be screened. Boarding students are screened for head lice upon moving into the dorms in the fall, and on an as-needed basis school-wide.

Classroom notifications are not done with typical head lice cases. The customary notification for the presence of head lice is to be done on an individual, case- bycase basis to the parent/guardian of an affected student. In rare cases, it may be appropriate for the school nurse, in consultation with the medical director, to consider a general parent/guardian notification for a high number of identified cases of head lice. Such notification will be made with as much attention to the privacy of the infected student(s) as possible.