Home Visit

I had the pleasure of doing a home visit on a couple of kids whose absences reached the "unacceptable" level in my book. Each are averaging a "present" rate of just over 50%; that is, each are absent almost half the time. I've written about these kids before (here and here), they're darling 2nd and 3rd graders now, that just aren't at school enough. I've sent them home for lice many times over the last couple of years, and when they go home, they don't return for a week or two, sometimes more. 

Another nurse and I went over to their house and woke up their bleary, red-eyed mother at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday. The living room wasn't in too much of a disarray, but I caught a glimpse of the kitchen: wine and liquor bottles all over the table, mostly empty. No wonder the mother looked so awful. She was pleasant enough to our faces, feeding us what can only be called a load of B.S., telling us that her daughter(s) "just don't want to come to school." I'm no parent, but I can hardly imagine my 8 year old daughter being the one to tell me when she will and will not go to school. She claimed her neighbors are "cop callers, you know that kind" and call the police if she tries to take her daughter to school and the daughter throws a tantrum. To that, we replied, even better: when the police arrive, ask them to escort her daughter to school in the back of the patrol car. The idea had clearly never occurred to her. (The idea to be a parent, and act like it, that is.) She denied that the repeated lice issues are due to any inability or lack of knowledge about the little bugs, and stressed that the absences have been related to social issues, not lice. We outlined the truancy process and informed her that truancy letters would begin arriving, and then were on our merry way out the door. 

This week I found out that one of the daughters had been sent home on Friday - the day after that home visit - for lice. Of course.