Our school has a standard letter they send out whenever there is a confirmed case.  They also include the standard information - do's and dont's.  

Our district does check every kiddo in the school when there is a report.  It's the best way possible to keep things in check - get all those affected treated at the same time.  We don't have a full time school nurse, so I'm not sure who does the checking - if they send someone over from the HS or if it falls to our dear school secretary (who truly does everything at our small school).

Having worked at daycares, I know how damn hard it is to get rid of lice.  I remember one year we finally were able to bundle everything up over Christmas break to kill the last of it (on those soft things that couldn't get washed).  It is a big pain, and kinda gross, but not worth freaking out as some of those parents did at your meeting last night.

at all schools, I would suspect. We went through one year [my kids' 3rd grade year] when it seemed like we were getting a letter every week. It sounds like the letter Jen mentions her school sends.

And, yes, my head started itching every time one of those letters came home. The school nurse checked every child in the classroom of the child who had lice every time there was an outbreak [fun for her, huh?] We have been lucky most of the time that we did not get it [got it once, but not sure it was from school].

I think the usual precautions [don't share hats, headbands, scarves, brushes, etc]. Also, make sure the kids' backpacks are stored in such a way that they do not touch each other.

Many folks here swear by tea tree oil shampoo to prevent [allegedly lice don't like the smell and will avoid those kids]. Other moms gel up their girl's hair and put them in ponytails [theory is lice don't like gel]. Many boys get short haircuts.

It's a PITA, but I don't think it's a huge health risk. And we, too, have had those overly excited, vocal parents who want every child in school treated, blah blah blah. And they want to be notified every time a child in their child's class has a friend with lice -- yep, that's right -- if my kid knows someone [outside school] who has lice, this mom wants to be notified, whether or not my kid has lice. Yeah, right. Fortunately our principal and school nurse are very level-headed and can handle these things well.

Have never heard of a school spending money to check each child in the school. I would not want my tax dollars spent for that.

we lived the lice nightmare.  With the older kids, we always managed to avoid this, although every year there seemed to be an outbreak.  I really do believe some hair is more attractive to lice...seriously.  My youngest daughter had them about 4 times in the space of a little over a year.  I know she kept getting them at school.  What we found out was that many of the products were not very effective.  Its that theory of evolution at work...live become immune to these chemicals and after large outbreaks in a single school, I have witnessed this.  There are some products on the market that purport to be "natural"...they are more effective.  They are oil based and basically work by smothering the living lice while making the eggs easy to comb out.  I would therefore advise parents to try these products first.

seems like every eight weeks or so, a sign goes up on the door at our daycare center stating that someone has lice. The center asks that parents keep kids home until the eggs are gone. I'd be able to do that as a work-from-home parent, but it'd be unfeasible for two-income parents who depend on both salaries.

Personally, I'd be a bit grossed out if Jess came home with lice, but we'd deal with it. I've heard that smothering the lice with a heavy coat of conditioner, bagging/capping the head for 30 minutes, then combing everything out is an effective way of dealing with this, but I've never road tested it so can't comment from practical experience.

Now I'm going to give my head a good scratch!

well, I was, in grade school in Thailand.  School policy said no girls with hair over 5" long or so, no boys with hair over 2".  But I didn't want to cut my long blonde hair, and they let me get away with it.  So of course when we all got lice I had the worst time of anybody, with so much hair to comb through.  Genius foreigner that I was.

Seems like there was shampoo that killed it pretty good, and washing everydamn thing, or putting it out in direct sun, like the carpets.  In the US when we had outbreaks the school nurse checked every kid.

Do lice carry disease?  Kids with heads scratched to sores is health issue.  Heck, just super distracted itchy kids is bad for school, I guess.

came out last year and said it was a bigger problem for kids to miss school because of lice than it was for them to have lice.  Head lice is NOT a health issue, though it can be an "ewww" issue.  I wish I had a link for the documents we got at work but they were in hard-copy format.

I've heard lots of formulas for getting rid of lice.  The one time we got it, the only way we could get rid of it was to have a professional do the comb-out, which included a follow-up visit.

I think $2 a kid is a bargain.  When it first turned up at DS's school, the office staff was doing the checking but they didn't know what they were doing and there were lots of false positives.  A lot of kids were needlessly embarrassed.  It wasn't handled well at first, though they did get better for later outbreaks.  

This Link from the AAP might help you with the parent who doesn't get how you don't get the health issues involved!  Lice is yucky and a hassle to get rid of, but not really a big deal otherwise

American academy of pediatrics statement recommending that children not miss school can be found here

Last year during a Tball parent meeting that I missed one of the moms went hysterical (or so I later heard) on the topic of batting helmets, insisting that everyone buy their own.  Of course we didn't, having not gotten the memo.  So my son used one of the 4 helmets supplied to each team by the league, and basically had it to himself.  This year nobody mentioned it and it didn't occur to me.  I wonder if we need to get one, or whether we should assume that boys on sports teams are going to share whatever it is that they are going to share, regardless?  Not having been the least athletic ourselves, we don't know.

for the AAP links!  The biggest emotion last night was that NYC Dept of Ed does not have a "no nit" policy - and now it seems that there's at least a reason to support that policy.

We lived through it last year, and lived to tell. The experience has been known to induce insanity in many families. Ours was no exception.

Here is the bottom line: They are disgusting and annoying but they won't kill you.

After trying the toxic but ultimately ineffective over-the-counter stuff, here is what our pediatrician finally told us to do. Buy a jar of mayonnaise (32 ounces) for each member of your family, as well as some close-fitting plastic shower caps. Work the entire jar of mayo (yes, all 32 ounces) into each person's scalp. Then secure the shower cap. Sleep with it on overnight. Wash it out the next morning (it will make your hair soft and shiny, but be sure to use a scented shampoo and conditioner!).

Pick out the nits. Repeat the treatment in a few days if you think you are seeing more nits instead of fewer. Use more mayonnaise the next time.

The mayo will suffocate the lice and the nits. It's a non-toxic solution and you can do it as many times as necessary.

We did this twice with one daughter, four times with the other, twice on me and once on my husband. It was a pain, but they eventually went away.

Having been through it once and survived, I will never freak out about lice again.

The whole time my children were in elementary school, we had these notices, too.  Most of the notices came in mid-October, before Halloween.  The teachers told me it was because kids would be in a store, trying on Halloween masks, and that spread the lice around.  Makes sense to me.  But these hints, like, "Don't let your child touch other children," "don't let their backpacks touch others," etc. are just silly.  Impossible.  And having nurses check heads is rather pointless, too.  Will it find lice the day they check?  Yes.  But what about tomorrow?  Next week?  You'd have to hire a nurse to check heads every day.

Out of all the times we got those notices, I thought maybe one of my kids had lice once.  My daughter (who had really long hair) was scratching.  I looked, but didn't see any lice.  But just to be sure, I treated all 3 of my children.  The boys were easy -- they had short hair.  But my daughter!  OMG.  In addition to her hair being long, it was VERY thick.  And that tiny, very fine comb was impossible to get through her hair.  I just did the best I could.  Back then, they said you had to comb the hair and administer the lice medication, then wait 10 days, and repeat it.  (To get any recently-hated eggs.  Plus smother the lice from everything in your house that had material.  That included sofas, chairs, carpets, etc. in addition to every piece of clothing you had.  Impossible -- and I didn't even try.  

I never did find out if any of my children really had lice, but I did the treatment anyway.  And, for the record, I don't see it as a disease either -- just an annoyance.  I know that some parents of children with lice did NOT do the treatment, yet no one missed school due to illness, and no one died.  How could it be a disease?

I had to go to the store to buy lice combs to do nit runs with my kids and there were no price tags on them.  The girl actually got on the loudspeaker and called out "Price Check on the Lice Combs!"   Nice.  

We had only a small lice incident but it was enough to convince me I never want them again.  We went with the mineral oil and the shower cap approach and then regular nit combing for two weeks - with the Licemeister.

I'll agree with everyone else who says that lice are gross, but not a health risk.  I'd also like to add that its a good thing to get over the "gross" quickly, because lice are very common.  Even in small private schools with high income kids (contrary to the common perception of lice being a hygience or economic problem).  Also, one of the easiest ways to get lice is to go to the movies.  Kids put their heads back against the seats; next kid gets lice.  Hence, winter break does not solve a school's lice problem.

Our school has a "no nit" policy.  I believe this is extreme, but I am powerless to change it, and we did lose several days of school, a few years ago, when my younger son got caught in several outbreaks.  His class, this year, also had some major outbreaks, but he stayed clean.  The reason I think the policy is excessive is due to a little knowledge about the life cycle of lice.

The only way to get rid of lice is to comb out all the bugs and all the nits.  The shampoos don't work (the bugs are immune), and smothering only works for the bugs, although it may loosen unhatched nits and make combing more effective.  The thing is, you are bound to miss a few nits (hence my objection to the "no nit" policy.)  The missed nit may hatch in a day or two, but, then, as an immature bug, it cannot lay new eggs for a day or two.  So, if you comb every day for a week or two, and get the rare baby bug, you will eventually be done with all the missed nits. (If you skip a few days, and the baby bug matures, you have to start over because you'll be saturated with nits again).  So, I prefer a "no bug" policy. The nits are stuck in the kid's head, they don't move, so a few stuck nits in the morning are not a problem. If they hatch, and you comb them out before they mature, they pose no threat the next day.  The only possible problem is if one hatches early in the day and jumps to a new kid by the end of the day. But I'd compare that risk to the cost of lost school days with a "no nit" policy, and go with the no bug policy every time.

My solution -- use regular shampoo, and slather the hair with a cheap conditioner (like Suave), so that the hair is very soft.  Then comb, comb, comb, with the expensive yellow comb (the one with round metal prongs; the cheap ones that come with the bug shampoo don't work, the prongs are too far apart.)  Keep it up for a week or two. Then you are done.  For bedding and soft toys, and jackets, and backpacks -- Throw them in the dryer on high for half an hour.  The heat will kill any nits or bugs that fell off.

Best advice.  Get over being grossed out.  Its a price of life in elementary schools, these days.

We had some education on how lice spread while I was teaching.  According to our instructor, passing lice on through hats, backpacks, movie seats etc is a myth for the most part because lice need the warmth from a head to survive.  I had some masks that I was nervous about reusing with various classes and she said that 20 minutes after a child with lice had used it, any lice would be gone as they need the warmth to survive as do the eggs.

My Mom always said my head, covered as it was in super thick very curly hair, was a lice playground. I got them every time they hit the school. I remember VIVIDLY sitting with my head in my abuelita's towel draped lap and she would painstakingly pull LIVE BUGS from my head and squash them with her fingernails. Then there was also the painful, inevitable combing with the metal lice brush, and the stinky lindane oil shampoo. (Very toxic).

I was horribly grossed out yet utterly fascinated, especially when the exploded lice would leak blood.

My head is itching now so bad, this is what they mean by sense memory I take it.

Fortunately, the lice never made it into my home, but they have been in our school.  Here are a few things we were told to do:

Tell your kids absolutely no sharing of combs, brushes, hats, scrunchies, or anything hair-related.  Also, no sharing of sweaters or jackets.

Have kids put all their things in a plastic bag when they arrive at school.  (Our school doesn't have lockers, but has an area with hooks where all the kids' stuff hangs together.)  Giant garbage bags with handles on them work best.  And for criminy's sake, don't pile coats up in a pile anywhere--our teacher got lice from a coat pile!

Have your child wear a bit of hairspray or gel or mousse in their hair.  Lice prefer very clean hair (ironic, isn't it?), so if your hair has product in it, it will be less enticing to the lice.

If they are in your house, bag up all offending toys, linens, etc., in plastic bags for two weeks; they will die in that time frame without a fresh body to live on, and you should be lice-free.

It's an icky problem, but fortunately, not a serious health threat.