Parents with children in HRM schools will be asked to check their children regularly for head lice instead of depending on notifications when the nasty bug shows up in the classroom.

The dreaded letter that parents get shortly after school starts in the fall — "head lice has been found in your child's classroom..." — isn't going to be sent home in the Halifax Regional School Board district anymore.

That's not to say the bug problem has been eliminated, only that the board wants parents to be vigilant all year round.

"The school doesn't send a letter home now if there is a confirmed case in a specific class," board spokesman Doug Hadley said.

Head lice is a year-round problem in schools. (Shutterstock)

"What we've heard from public health nurses and what we've heard from schools is that it stigmatizes certain kids because parents, the first thing they try to do is to determine who that child is and then we see some examples of kids being excluded from some activities because the parents don't want to take a risk of their child getting head lice."

The board changed the policy last spring after getting some advice from the medical officer of health for the Capital Health region.

Instead principals at schools are being asked to notify parents periodically, to remind them and to make checking for head lice part of their routine.

"We're trying to make it part of people's regular routine, that they would be checking their kids for head lice," Hadley said.

"Head lice is a year-round nuisance. You see it often at the beginning of the school year but it has been in existence in the community throughout the summer."