Schools comply with two vaccination laws

Each year prior to the start of school parents are rushing to take care of back-to-school needs including immunizations.

Shots are never fun, but are necessary for most children to start classes.

School systems work to comply with two separate laws regarding vaccinations.

A federal law mandates schools to enroll all children, and the Alabama Immunization Law requires all children to have current immunization records.

According to Director of Federal Programs Oveta Pearce, the Enterprise City Schools System does everything in its power to get all children updated on vaccinations before the first day of school.

Pearce said three to four correspondences are sent to parents or guardians during the year if an immunization is needed for their child before the next school year.

This year, school officials notified parents and guardians of two changes that went into affect regarding vaccinations. According to a memorandum from the Alabama Department of Education, parents or guardians must have documentation of a varicella, or chickenpox, vaccination or immunity required for pre-school aged children through 10th grade, as well as documentation of a Tdap vaccination, required for all Alabama students years 11 or older entering sixth and seventh grades.

School nurses keep track of all student immunization records using a database system called “STI Health.”

These vaccinations and requirements include an Alabama certificate of immunization complete with up-to-date shots for diseases such as chickenpox, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, polio and measles, mumps and rubella. 

Students in subgroups like immigrants, migrant, English as a Second Language students and students considered homeless are exempt from having an Alabama certificate of immunization. 

“All of the students in those subgroups, they automatically, according to federal law, are exempt, and many times it’s because of their transient, migratory situation that often prevents them from having that information when they come,” Pearce said.

In this case, Pearce said school officials attempt to contact the previous school to obtain the information. If no contact can be made, the school is still federally mandated to enroll the student.

To comply with both laws, Pearce said the school system makes every provision for the student to go to the health department or assists them in going to their health provider to get immunized, or at least receive a 30-day temporary card, before attending class.

A 30-day temporary immunization card is issued by the health department and allows a student without an up-to-date immunization record to enroll in school. 

Within that 30-day timeframe, Pearce said if the immunization record is not updated, the student would not be allowed to attend classes until the record is updated.

“So what we do is before they ever attend a class we ensure that they get the shots, so we are complying with the immunization (law),” Pearce said.  “But we’re also not denying them enrollment.”

If a student is enrolling without any documents including a birth certificate, social security card or any previous school records, school officials interview the parents to get as much information about the child as possible.

The child is then screened to see exactly where the student is academically so they may be placed in the appropriate grade level. Some children may have never attended school before or have gaps in their education.

“Even if (the new immigration law) were in effect we wouldn’t deny enrollment, we just try to remove all the barriers, because the law says that all children must have an education,” Pearce said. “So we try to eliminate what is going to prevent them from having that education.” 

School system principals, counselors, nurses and a parental involvement liaison all work together to remove obstacles that would prevent a child from enrolling in school.

The only instances of complete exemption from immunizations are for signed medical exemption or a religious exemption.