By Meryn Fluker, Correspondent

New practices regarding head lice have parents in the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District scratching their heads.

When Prior Lake resident Jocelyn Einarson combed her daughter Chloe’s hair in early November, she knew right away that something was wrong: Chloe had head lice.

Einarson sprung into action, going to the store to buy special shampoo and calling Chloe’s first-grade teacher at WestWood Elementary School. Einarson returned Chloe to school the next day, only to get a phone call from the nurse that Chloe still had nits (lice eggs) in her hair.

“I said, ‘I’ll be right there,’” Einarson said.

She drove to WestWood and spoke with the nurse, who dropped quite the shock: Chloe was free to return to class.

The nurse’s actions were consistent with District 719’s new practices regarding head lice. The changes took effect earlier this school year and allow students who have live lice or nits to attend class unless their cases present “unique circumstances.” District nurses will notify parents if a child presents with an infestation, but will not alert other parents or students unless – again – there are “unique circumstances,” such as a particularly severe infestation or a cluster of cases in one classroom.

“I would hope that if lice was in my child’s classroom I would get some sort of notification or a heads up,” said Einarson. “I wouldn’t expect all classrooms and the whole school to go through a screening, but I would think that a letter would be sent home so parents could check.”

District nurse Cindi Isaacson said the change in practice was the result of recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Though the evidence to switch to these new approaches has been present for a few years, Isaacson and her colleagues spent 12 to 18 months researching it, and initially Isaacson felt some reticence.

“The AAP put out new guidelines in the past number of years and I thought, ‘That’ll never fly,’” she said. “Then it nags away that you’re not doing best practices, so we started doing research.”

According to text on the district’s website sourced to the CDC, “Current evidence does not support the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of classroom or school-wide screening for head lice to reduce the number of head lice infestations among school children … Students diagnosed with live head lice should not be sent home early from school; they can go home at the end of the day, be treated and return to class the next day. Excluding children from school because of head lice is not recommended.”

That didn’t stop Tracy Caskey, a Prior Lake mother, from keeping her son A.J. home from Grainwood Elementary School on Nov. 8. She discovered on Nov. 6 that A.J. had head lice.

“Assuming that he got it from a classmate, [I’m] mad that I didn’t know about it,” Caskey said. “He probably had it for about a week.”

Caskey, who runs a daycare from her home, called all of her charges’ parents to let them know that she and her son had head lice. She was disappointed that the school district’s practices were in contrast to hers, because she later found out another student in A.J.’s second-grade class had head lice, and Caskey is “confident” that student passed the lice to A.J.

“Who knows how much laundry I did?” Caskey asked. “I had to wash everything … I spent three days washing clothes and trying to figure out what to do.”

Caskey said she spent $40 treating herself and A.J., and called her vet to see whether or not the family dog, Baxter, needed to be treated as well. She then spent another $40 to make sure Baxter was lice-free. She also had to close down her daycare on Nov. 8. Finally, the following day and after her husband met with the school’s principal, an e-mail was sent notifying parents that their students may have been exposed to lice.

“You almost feel like the district doesn’t want to say ‘A.J. had head lice,’ but you don’t have to name names,” she said. “Just say a kid has head lice.”

Isaacson said parent notifications have only been sent twice this year regarding head lice. She still encourages parents to check their children’s heads regularly, regardless of whether letters have been sent.

“If they want to detect lice early and treat lice early, they need to check their children’s heads regularly,” she said. “If you check your child’s head routinely…that’s what will help you stop transmission in your family and in your community.”

Meryn Fluker can be reached at mfluker@swpub.com.