Students were sent home in Prince George’s County and parents were called by the hundreds in Montgomery County because of failures by a number of fifth- through ninth-graders to meet Tuesday’s statewide deadline for two mandatory vaccines.
School officials said Tuesday afternoon the actual number of middle and high schoolers forced to leave class in Prince George’s was unknown, as was the tally of noncompliant students in Montgomery.
However, officials estimated that the problem was large-scale and that efforts to track which students had and had not gotten their required immunizations took up quite a bit of administrators’ time during the first day back from winter vacation.
Last week, Prince George’s schools spokesman John White estimated that at least 10,000 of the county’s 134,000 public school students had not gotten shots to ward off chickenpox and hepatitis B. On Tuesday he told The Examiner he was unsure how many of those 10,000 still were without the two required vaccines but that the county did send children home in order to comply with the state mandate.
“We don’t have any choice,” he said. “We have to follow the state requirement.”
In Montgomery, county spokeswoman Mary Anderson said that with 50 of 65 schools reporting back, 350 students were noncompliant. That number could very well be higher once all schools are accounted for, but it’s significantly lower than a week ago, when about 1,600 students still had not been vaccinated.
Kate Harrison, assistant public information director for Montgomery County Public Schools, said she was unsure whether principals were sending students home on Tuesday or what the protocol was going to be today, but that the emphasis was on helping students meet the requirement, not on kicking them out.
“We’ll do everything possible for them to be in compliance … as long as there’s a good-faith effort,” she said.
Irm Pichot, a nurse administrator with school health services, emphasized that Tuesday was technically not the last day for students could get their shots. Students who came in with proof that they had appointments before Jan. 19 are considered OK, she said.
