Parents Reminded To Keep Kids Up-To-Date On Vaccinations As School Year Starts
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Back-to-school time brings with it a serious health reminder -- to make sure your child is up to date on vaccinations.
Even if your child has a valid exemption, they can still be excluded from school if there is an outbreak of a disease that can be prevented with a vaccine.
"We rarely see many of these infectious diseases anymore because of our vaccination rates and we're very proud of our vaccination rates in Allegheny County. They're upwards to about 96 percent," said Dr. Karen Hacker, Director of the Allegheny County Health Department.
Unless the student has a valid exemption -- medical, religious or moral -- on the first day of school, they must have had at least one dose of the required vaccinations or risk exclusion.
"We also know that when a large percent of the population is vaccinated, even if someone -- one person -- isn't vaccinated, the likelihood that that disease will spread becomes much less," said Dr. Hacker.
The legal requirement in Pennsylvania changed for the 2017-2018 school year. Students used to have eight months from the start of the school year to get up to date; now it's five days. However, that does not mean they must have every dose of a multi-dose vaccine.
"If you do have documentation that they got the first or the second in the series and you have a plan that dictates when you're going to get the last vaccine or the next vaccine in that series, you should be fine," said Dr. Hacker.
For information on what school immunizations are required, click here:
In addition to what's required, the Allegheny County Health Department also recommends the flu vaccine and the HPV vaccine for children ages 12 and 13.
"We have our own immunization clinic here and we are happy to help with vaccinations for folks who are either underinsured or uninsured," said Dr. Hacker.
For clinic information click here:
Children in Allegheny County are also required to be tested for lead when they turn 1 and 2 or before age 6 if they have not been previously tested.
"Those are specifically targeted to when children are at highest risk for being exposed to lead, mostly because of their behaviors. They are crawling around on the ground, putting things into their mouths, things like that," said Dr. Hacker.
There is no risk of school exclusion with the lead testing requirement.
