Bed bug infestations are a huge problem in New York City. Major hotels, retail shops and corporations have been affected in the past few years. I think it's only a matter of when, and not if, your individual school will be infested. That's why the city's previous bed bug policy didn't go very far in resolving instances of bed bugs in schools. In fact, the city says that bed bugs are not a major problem for schools, but many parents and teachers say otherwise.
Prior policy was that a school official had to collect physical evidence of bed bugs and mail them to an office in Queens, in order to initiate a treatment in their affected school. With the new procedure, The Department of Education has set up a new email address, bedbugconcersn@schools.nyc.gov, for complaints about bed bugs in NYC schools. School officials now have the option of emailing photographic evidence of bedbugs to the DOE for a much quicker response, instead of mailing them and waiting days for an answer.
Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer, pushed for these changes and hails the win as, "An important victory in the fight to rid NYC schools of bed bugs."
Have you had instances of bed bugs in your school? Let us know how it was handled.
