Should Head Lice Keep Kids Out of School?
If your children have ever had head lice, you probably flinch every time they scratch their head. Could it be those blasted bugs again? One bout with medicated shampoos and washing everything in the house and picking through hair strand by strand looking for nits … the only thing worse than having to wage an all-out war to remove every last trace of louse life is knowing that your child won’t be able to go back to school until you do. And why is that? Do head lice spread disease? Do they cause injury? Do they fly about the room and lite on everything in sight? Do the nits somehow pass from child to child like live bugs? In a word: No. So why are children being excluded from school merely for having a few louse eggs stuck to their hair shafts? As much as enforced school absence is an inconvenience for children in regular education, it’s a disaster for children with special needs, who miss out on needed school-provided therapies, react badly to the change of routine, may have life-thre
