Area school districts faced with updated vaccination policy
As a new school year begins, students in Pennsylvania schools must receive all required vaccination shots within the first week of classes or risk being turned away from school.
Under new guidelines from the state Department of Health, students are expected to get vaccinated much sooner than previously required, and school districts are required to closely monitor their students’ immunization status.
State officials want both public and private school students to be up-to-date with all their vaccinations within five days of the beginning of the school year, a reduction from the eight months they used to have to get their shots. Students who do not comply could risk being excluded from school.
“If you’re not immunized, then in accordance with state law, you can’t attend school. That’s really all there is to it,” said California Area Superintendent Michael Sears. “We intend to follow the law.”
The measure is intended to prevent the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as last year’s whooping cough outbreak where residents in two central Pennsylvania counties became ill with the bacterial respiratory disease.
Students could get around the five-day requirement if they have a medical certificate on or before the fifth day of school that shows a schedule of when they will get their vaccines, according to the state health department.
Sears said students without all of their vaccine doses will be permitted to attend school as long as the district can see there is a plan to complete the vaccination requirements.
“If we run into a problem, we’ll send letters out to the parents that they have to get it done. And we know exactly who (those students) are,” said Sears.
Sears said a very low number of students each year are not fully vaccinated at the beginning of the school year. In nearly all cases, parents keep up to date with their children’s shots.
Connellsville Area Superintendent Phil Martell said the policy change is an unfunded state mandate that forces the district to devote time and resources to something that has never been an issue in the district.
One concern, said Martell, is how to enforce the new requirement. Excluding students from school conflicts with the district’s truancy policy that is in place to make sure students are attending school, he said.
Martell said if students are not vaccinated after five days, the district will send home additional notifications to demand compliance. The district will work with its solicitor to determine the district’s obligation to exclude students who are not fully vaccinated.
The updated requirements bring Pennsylvania in line with recommendations set by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s committee on immunization practices.
The new regulations were developed over a nearly two-year process that included several public comment phases that drew nearly 300 recommendations from parents, school nurses and physicians.
“We’re going to have to follow the guidelines the state laid out,” said Frazier Superintendent Dr. Bill Henderson.
Henderson said the district sent notifications to parents over the summer to inform them of the change. After five days, if an unvaccinated child comes to school without a doctor-approved plan to get their shots, they will be sent home, he said.
A student could be exempt from vaccination if they can show a medical, religious, moral, ethical or philosophical reason for abstaining. Students must file an official state exemption form with the school district to receive exempt status, said Henderson.
The health department said students who prove an exemption might be excluded from school if a vaccine-preventable disease breaks out.
The immunizations could also be waived if a child is homeless, if they transferred into the school or if there is a national vaccine shortage.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.