The Vigo County School Corporation is changing its head lice procedures as an effort to keep kids in school.
Students will no longer automatically be sent home if they’re found to have lice. Instead, the nurse will notify parents and give them instructions on how to take care of the problem. The school will then monitor the student.
The corporation is also nixing its ‘no nit’ policy. Nits are lice eggs or egg casings.
Tom Balitewicz, the director of student services for the Vigo County School Corporation, says now students won’t be sent home if they have nits in their hair.
"It’s not communicable and not life threatening in any way, shape, or form," he says. "And it also adds to the stigma for the students and it’s unnecessary stigma."
Balitewicz says a handful of parents have voiced concerns, but he says the new procedures make more sense and keep students from missing school unnecessarily.
He says the guidelines come directly from The Centers for Disease Controland the National Association of School Nurses.
School nurses will still have the discretion to send a student home if problems with lice persist.