Vacinnation Deadline Looms for Pa. Students

Students who don't comply with an upcoming immunization deadline will likely find themselves unable to attend school

Pennsylvania students who don't comply with an upcoming immunization deadline will likely find themselves unable to attend school, state and local officials warned this week.

New state vaccine guidelines took effect this school year, putting Pennsylvania in line with recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They mandate several extra shots, including ones against mumps, chicken pox and meningitis.

Students who were not up-to-date on their inoculations when school started last fall were given an eight-month grace period. That expires on May 1 for many districts, though the deadline can vary depending on when classes started.

Officials in some school districts say they have repeatedly notified students and parents about the deadline, yet many have not complied. Students must be vaccinated to attend school, with few exceptions.

"Our nurses have been concerned about this since the beginning of the school year,'' said Eileen Kelliher, a spokeswoman for the Bristol Township schools near Philadelphia.

Nearly 1,000 of Bristol Township's 6,200 students are not in compliance, despite numerous reminders, Kelliher said Wednesday.

The new regulations require children in all grades to receive a second dose of mumps vaccine and a second dose of chicken pox vaccine.

Students in seventh grade also must have one dose of meningitis vaccine, and one dose of the tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis inoculation. The shots must be appropriately spread out.

Statewide, about 15 percent of kindergarteners and 24 percent of seventh-graders were not up to date as of October, according to figures from the state Health Department.

"We are hopeful that these rates have gone down in recent months,'' agency spokeswoman Holli Senior said.

In Bristol Township, Kelliher said the district has already sent home three letters, held three shot clinics -- poorly attended, she noted -- and had principals meet with students who are not up-to-date. A fourth letter is scheduled to go out from the superintendent next week.

She said some students might have gotten the shots but not provided the relevant records.

"Families may have the paperwork, but don't understand the seriousness'' of turning it in to school officials, Kelliher said.

In the nearby Pennsbury district, which has about 11,000 students, about 400 high schoolers and several hundred middle school students were not in compliance as of mid-March. However, spokeswoman Ann Langtry said Wednesday that the numbers are steadily declining due to publicity, local immunization clinics and personal outreach.

Students can be excused from the vaccine requirement for religious or health reasons. However, they cannot attend school during an illness outbreak.

That happened this past winter in Chester County, where at least two schools declared outbreaks of whooping cough, also known as pertussis. Health officials consider two or more cases at one location to be an outbreak.

Those without the pertussis vaccination could not go to class for 21 days.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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