Hamilton County is helping schools fight a growing epidemic of bed bugs.
The pesky critters can hitch a ride on just about anything, including furniture, clothes or luggage – and children can unknowingly bring bed bugs to school on their clothes or backpacks.
So county health officials have issued guidelines to help schools fight the problem.
Health Commissioner Tim Ingram says bed bugs do not carry diseases, so no child should be excluded from school because of them.
However, guidelines include: training staff to identify bed bugs; discretely removing a child from the classroom for an inspection; bagging and sealing belongings that have bed bugs; and notifying parents when their children have bed bugs.
