The Truth About the MMR Vaccine
The Vaccinations Your Child Needs To Head Back To School
Kids across North Carolina are headed back to the classroom. When they get there, there are a number of required vaccines they need to have.
North Carolina law requires public and private school students to receive all CDC-required vaccinations before entering school or daycare.
Most students will receive initial doses of required vaccinations early on in childhood.
"Usually the critical time for vaccinations are usually the kindergarten ages 4-5," explained Dr. Magally Prosper with UNC Health.
Vaccination requirements for those younger than 6 include, HBV, DTaP, IPV, Hib, PCV, MMR and Var.
Rotavirus, flu and HAV vaccines are also recommended at this age. The CDC also recommends children between 6 months and 6 years receive at least one dose of the latest COVID-19 vaccine.
"The next step is at 10-11 years old," said Dr. Prosper. "They do need new vaccines to start school like the tetanus vaccine and the meningitis vaccine."
High school aged students heading to school in North Carolina would likely be due for booster doses for vaccinations received when they were younger.
CDC and Wake County vaccination recommendations also advise HPV vaccines be given starting at age 9.
WRAL was there as the Tanaka family visited UNC Health Pediatrics at Apex location for back-to-school sports physicals and vaccinations.
Brian Tanaka shared he and his wife have always recognized the importance of regular visits to their family doctors.
"Our priority as a family is to have our annual wellness checks and to make sure all members of our family are seeing their physicians on an annual basis so we have a good understanding of our health year-to-year," he shared. "This is just part of our family routine."
Olivia Tanaka, heading into 7th grade, shared she is most looking forward to seeing friends and playing sports.
"You get to talk to everyone and ask them how their summer went," she shared.
The middle of the three sisters was also due for additional vaccines as a middle schooler.
"Just so we so we stay healthy and can go to school and hangout with our friends," she shared when talking of why she was getting vaccinated.
Dr. Prosper said parents should always have open conversations with their family pediatrician regarding vaccinations.
"A lot of parents have questions about vaccines, they're concerned about side effects or things they read online," stated Prosper. "I encourage parents to really have an open and honest conversation with their pediatrician to be able to address any questions or concerns they have so they can make the right decision to vaccinate their children."
College-aged students may also be due for additional boosters heading back to campus.
For example, Tdap boosters are to be given every ten years after completing the DTaP series during youth.
Adults 50 and older are also required to receive the shingles vaccine. Those over 65 are also required to receive one dose of each PPV and PCV13 for pneumococcal disease.
Wake County offers vaccinations at several locations including: the Public Health Center in Raleigh and the Regional Centers in Raleigh, Fuquay-Varina, Wake Forest and Zebulon
Required Vaccines For School In NY: Which Ones Are Needed, And Are There Exemptions?
Back-to-school vaccine season in New York has changed in recent years, underscoring the importance of staying updated on the latest requirements and guidelines in 2024.
Much of the upheaval came after lawmakers repealed religious or nonmedical school vaccine exemptions in 2019, which impacted about 26,000 unvaccinated kids, or 1% of schoolchildren at the time.
Maykel Cajamarca gets his shots for school at the Rockland County Department of Health satellite vaccination clinic in Spring Valley Oct. 19, 2023.
That repeal also seemingly inspired new school vaccine schemes. Authorities this year busted several New York health providers for providing falsified school vaccine records for thousands of kids amid an ongoing crackdown on the fraud.
At the same time, researchers are exploring how many parents chose to homeschool or move out of New York instead of getting their kids vaccinated. One recent study suggested one third of schools across upstate may have lost some students due to the nonmedical exemption repeal.
Still, New York was among just nine states that didn't face a pandemic-era rise in school vaccine exemption rates, reinforcing the fact repealing nonmedical exemptions helped improve overall school vaccination rates in New York, federal data show.
Here's what you should know about school vaccines in New York, including which vaccinations kids need to get and expert tips on flu and COVID-19 shots, which are recommended but not required for students.
Which vaccines are required for schools in NY?A measles vaccine sign outside the Robert L. Yeager health complex in Pomona on Wednesday, March 27, 2019.
Among the vaccines required in 2024 to attend day care, pre-K and kindergarten school attendance:
Diphtheria and Tetanus toxoid-containing vaccine and Pertussis vaccine (DTaP or Tdap)
Hepatitis B vaccine
Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine (MMR)
Polio vaccine
Varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine
Vaccination fraud:Fake school vaccine scheme exposed 1,500 kids in NY to serious disease threats
Additional vaccines required for middle school and high school:
Tdap vaccine for Grades 6-12
Meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY) for Grades 7-12
Students in Grade 12 need an additional booster dose of MenACWY on or after their 16th birthday
Additional vaccines required for day care and pre-K:
What is the deadline for getting school vaccines?Within 14 days of the first day of school or day care, parents must:
Show proof of their child's up-to-date vaccinations, or
Provide a valid medical exemption from vaccination.
In order to attend or remain in school or day care, children who are unvaccinated or overdue must receive at least the first dose of all required vaccines within the first 14 days, health officials noted. They also must receive subsequent vaccines in the series within a 14-day period of when they are due to complete the immunization series.
Vaccine schemes:Nurse in Monroe County falsified vaccination records for over 100 kids
How to get school vaccines in NYWhile many health plans cover the cost of school vaccines, officials urge New Yorkers to check with their health insurance provider about potential costs before getting shots.
The federally-funded Vaccines for Children Program also provides vaccines at no cost to eligible children who are uninsured or underinsured. For more details about that program, call 1-800-543-7468 or email: nyvfc@health.Ny.Gov.
Infections: COVID cases rising in NY: What to expect this August and back-to-school season
When to get flu, new COVID vaccines for kids in 2024?Experts recommend getting annual flu and COVID-19 vaccines together in October for winter protection.
Health officials recommended everyone ages six months and older get the updated 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccine, which will target variants currently spreading and is expected to be released in September.
But health officials have struggled to convince New Yorkers to get children vaccinated against COVID-19, as only about 98,000, or 4% of, children under age 19 received the updated COVID-19 vaccine released last fall, state data show.
Are school vaccine exemptions rising in the U.S.?School vaccine coverage nationally remained near 93% during the 2022-23 school year, while the exemption rate increased fractionally to 3%, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control reported in November.
Exemptions increased in 41 states, with the rate exceeding 5% in 10 states, CDC noted, adding any rates above 5% increases the risk for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.
In New York, the number of exemptions held flat in the CDC study, involving only a fraction of schoolkids statewide. The vaccination rate among kindergartners was about 97%, the study reported.
School vaccine coverage overall in New York, excluding New York City, increased about 5.5% in private schools and 1% in public schools due to the repeal of nonmedical exemptions in 2019, according to a study earlier this year co-authored by Margaret Doll, an associate professor of epidemiology at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
Research into the number of parents who pulled kids from New York schools due to the repeal remained ongoing, said Doll, who also co-authored the study that revealed one third of upstate schools may have experienced enrollment changes due to the repeal.
How many deaths do childhood vaccines prevent?The Vaccines for Children program established in 1994 will prevent 1.13 million deaths, 32 million hospitalizations and 508 million illnesses, according to a study the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published last week.
The program has cost $268 billion but the savings will amount to $2.9 trillion, the study said. Put another way: For every dollar spent on vaccines, the country will net $11 in savings.
Eduardo Cuevas of USA TODAY contributed reporting.
David Robinson is the New York State Team health care reporter for the USA TODAY Network. His more than 15-year investigative reporting career has included awards for coverage of the opioid epidemic, hospital and nursing home abuses, health inequality, COVID-19 and emergency response failures.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Required NY school vaccines: Shots kids need, how to get them
Here Are The Required Vaccines For Iowa Public School Students
Parents have up until 60 days after the first day of school to submit proof of vaccination or an exemption.
IOWA, USA — Parents still have some time to get their children's immunizations up to date, but they'll want to do it sooner rather than later.
Iowa state law gives parents until 60 days after the first day of school to submit necessary documentation.
All public school students need the diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, red measles, three day measles, chickenpox and hepatitis B vaccines. Seventh and 12th grade students will need the meningitis vaccine as well.
"When you crowd people into a small space, it's going to be a great place for bugs to spread," Des Moines UnityPoint Health nurse practitioner Janae Brown said. "We really want to keep our students safe and prevent preventable diseases."
Medical professionals say staying up to date on immunizations helps reduce the spread of major illnesses.
"There may be a whooping cough and it'll pop up in some communities that you don't see as much vaccine uptake," Dr. Seth Quam with Des Moines University Clinic said. "If we can even reduce the amount of illness and the symptoms experienced, it tends to benefit everybody within the schools."
State law does allow students to opt out of the requirements for medical or religious reasons.
For a medical exemption, students would need a note signed by a physician that states receiving the vaccine could harm them or their family. For a religious exemption, they'd need to have a document signed by a parent stating the vaccine conflicts with their religious beliefs.
Last school year, about 5.5% of Polk County public school students were not fully vaccinated, according to an audit from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.
"We really encourage people to ask questions and to share any concerns they might have," Iowa Public Health Association President Kady Reese said. "Our doctors and physicians and nurse practitioners are really excited to have that conversation with our patients and their families."
For anyone uninsured, the Polk County Health Department offers free childhood immunizations.
Though not required by the state, medical professionals recommend families consider getting the flu and updated COVID-19 vaccines as well.
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