With the new school year coming closer on the calendar, Virginia education officials are reminding parents to make sure their children’s immunizations are up to date.
Last year, about 3,000 Virginia students missed the start of classes because they did not have the required shots for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. The 2006-07 school year was the first time the commonwealth’s sixth-grade students were required to have an updated immunization for the diseases.
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“While parents are usually diligent in staying on track with vaccinations for preschool children, they sometimes forget that booster shots and other immunizations are required for older children,” said Billy Cannaday Jr., the state’s superintendent of public instruction.
Virginia law also requires students to be vaccinated against polio, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. Children with incomplete immunizations cannot be admitted to school, Cannaday said.
The child’s parent or guardian can show school administrators proof the child has received at least one dose of the required immunizations and a written schedule from a doctor indicating when the student will receive remaining doses over the next 90 days.
The 90-day window does not apply to the immunizations against diptheria, tetanus and whooping cough that are required of sixth-grade students.
“With the start of a new school year less than a month away in some areas of the state, all parents are reminded to make sure their children are fully immunized before classes begin,” Cannaday said.
In January, thousands of fifth- through ninth-grade students in Maryland were kept out of classes because they had not met a new state requirement to be immunized against chicken pox and hepatitis B.
