With ongoing kindergarten registration taking place throughout the area, school districts are reminding parents of the importance of accurate immunization records.
“It’s critical that the children have their immunization so that they can get enrolled in school,” said Karen Hansen, Puyallup School District communications director.
Often immunizations that are required of incoming students change from year to year because of changes in the resistance of the diseases.
For example, this year, a two-dose series of the chickenpox vaccine is required rather than one dose.
Next school year, newly enrolled students will be required to show proof of immunization from a health care provider through official documentation or a blood test.
In some cases a student can be exempt from being vaccinated, but parents are required to fill out exemption forms with the district.
If a child has not been immunized they would not be allowed at school if there is an outbreak of a disease that can be prevented by vaccination, said Ann Cook, Sumner School District Communications Director.
Both the Puyallup and Sumner School Districts refer parents and children to Good Samaritan Hospital’s Mobile Health Services to receive vaccines.
The importance of getting vaccinated comes down to keeping preventable disease under control, said Robin Peterson, clinical coordinator of Good Samaritan Mobile Health Services, where children from both school districts are referred.
“There are lots of horrible diseases we’re able to protect from with vaccines now,” she said. “If we can’t continue to vaccinate, they will make a resurgence.”
Mobile Health Services vaccinates between 4,000 and 5,000 children in the area every year.
Right before children enter kindergarten is about the time they’re due for many vaccinations, Peterson said.
Some parents are concerned with how vaccines affect their children. A common concern is its connection with autism. However, Peterson said, those concerns should be a thing of the past.
“There isn’t any proof to back it up, but people are still afraid,” she said.
The fear came from a alleged link between the mercury-based preservative thiomersal and autism. Thiomersal had been used in vaccinations, but it no longer is, Peterson said.
“There are no preservatives (in today’s vaccines),” she said.
Not only learning what immunizations do, but also what immunizations are needed at what ages is key to preventing disease, Peterson said. Keeping an accurate official record of immunization dates is important in affective vaccination. In fact, the mobile health unit won’t provide a vaccination without one.
“Unless we see what a child has had we can’t give an accurate vaccination,” Peterson said.
But it’s the only road block to vaccines, she said. Money is never an issue. Through Mobile Health Services vaccines are paid for by the state, with a sliding scale administrative fee added for immunization services.
“Nobody is turned away based on the ability to pay for children’s vaccines,” Peterson said. “Cost is not a barrier.”
The sliding scale goes all the way down to free, she said.
One thing that can be difficult is scheduling, Peterson said. Often Mobile Health Services is inundated with children needing vaccinations right before school for six grade requirements and in the spring for kindergarten requirements.
To avoid rushes, she suggests getting children vaccinated right when they turn the appropriate age for a particular immunization series.
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More information
> For information about where to get vaccinated, go to www.goodsamhealth.org and click on the link for March 2008 immunizations site schedule.
> For more information about Puyallup School District kindergarten immunization requirements, go to www.puyallup.k12.wa.us and click on the link for kindergarten registration.
> For more information about Sumner School District kindergarten immunization requirements, go to www.sumner.wednet.edu and click on the link for kindergarten registration.
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