Harford County Public Schools posted the following message on Facebook today announcing new Maryland immunization requirements for students beginning next school year:
Parents/guardians of current 6th grade students: Beginning with the 2014-15 school year, new immunizations are required for all children entering 7th grade. One Tdap vaccination and one meningococcal vaccination are now required. Look for a letter with more details in your child’s backpack today. Also, information is available on our website: www.hcps.org/vaccinations. If you have questions about immunizations that are required for school, please call your child’s doctor or the school nurse.
The letter from HCPS appears below:
Health Services
Mary Nasuta RN, MS, NCSN, Nurse Coordinator
Ph. 410-588-5361 mary.nasuta@hcps.orgApril 3, 2014
Dear Parent or Guardian,
Beginning in the 2014-2015 school year, there are new immunization requirements for children entering 7th grade.
• All students entering 7th grade must have had one Tdap vaccination and one meningococcal vaccination.
These new requirements are in addition to the existing school immunization requirements.
According to Maryland School Immunization Regulations (COMAR 10.06.04), to be allowed in school, students must be immunized according to the Maryland Recommended Childhood Immunization Schedule. A child has up to 20 days from the start of school to show proof of vaccinations. Your child may not be allowed in school without these vaccinations.You should work with your child’s doctor to get his/her immunization record or the vaccinations that are missing. You may bring a copy of your Tdap and meningococcal shot documentation to your school nurse at this time in preparation for the 2014-2015 school year.
If you have questions about immunizations that are required for school, please call your child’s doctor or the school nurse.
Sincerely,
Mary Nasuta, RN, MS, NCSN
Nurse Coordinator
Why just 7th Graders? not 8th, 9th, 10th and so on? If the county actually wanted to prevent an infection it would be across the board NOW rather than a 5 year phase in.
Ask the state that question not the county. They made the law.
For children whose parents have followed the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedule this should not be a problem. Children aged 11 – 12 (the age of most sixth graders) are either on their final Tdap booster, or can be given an equivalent in less than a year’s time, with subsequent boosters being given every 10 years thereafter.
This is why there is no requirement for “8th, 9th, 10th and so on.” In those grades the student will have already had the booster or be required to do so under previous grade level requirements. It would be a bit redundant and unnecessary to specifically state “Students entering X grade need vaccines A, B, and C” for every single grade level when they can just say “By 6th grade, students need vaccines A, B, and C.” If a student is in a higher grade level and they do not have the vaccines, then they would not meet the requirement of having A, B, and C, by 6th grade.
RealityBites, how dare you use logic and common sense on the dagger! To expect these trolls to think is absolutely disgusting and abusurd.
Thanks! I do my best to post neutral replies in the event that the person is genuinely curious or confused, but I would have to agree with you. There is definitely a lot of rage in the Dagger comments section.
It is my sense that the actual number of people commenting on Dagger articles has declined over the years. A few diehards, who repeat the same tired line, seem to hang around. I think you are right about the rage, which often appears to be irrational and frequently personal, and this has resulted in a downward trend in overall readership and participation.
Plus where do all those strange postings to old articles come from and why can’t Dagger stop them? The entire Sounding Off column was filled with them this morning!
This is going to make the anti-vaccine crowd very unhappy. I wonder what happens to those kids. Do they go to special no-vaccine schools? Are they homeschooled? Hmm…
Just a thought… if we don’t allow “religion” in our schools (not that I am for or against that) why are “non-vaccinated students due to religious beliefs” allowed to be there? Meaning that if religion should play no role in our public education system then why the “religion clause” for vaccines? Isn’t there a greater “risk” being unvaccinated than attending an institution that might “say a prayer” or celebrate the religious holidays?