Immunization Reminders

[zenman]

My school gives kids 60 days to get caught up on immunizations and it's vicious circle all year getting them compliant. I have 463 immunization reminders (out of 700 students) to send out! Don't most schools in the states require you to have all immunizations or you don't get in...exception for those exemptions for religious reasons, etc..

What to do...what to do...

[Keepstanding, ASN, RN]

ZEN,

We give 'em 60 calendar days to get up to snuff. We also require a written note stating what date they have their appointment for. Good luck !

[baumeisterfuller]

Last spring I went to the school board [with support from one of the principals] and lobbied for changing our compliance date from October 15 to September 1. This has worked like a charm--many, many less to chase after [i have been doing this for 8 years and every year seemed worse than the last!]. I was very worried I would not get through all the paperwork prior to that early date, and it was a little stressful, but I only had a handful undone [out of 850+], and all but one had appointments scheduled within the next week! So, at least in our district, moving up the date has been a great success--seems like the more time you gave them, the more they took.

[joy09]

check out the requirements with the department of health and your own school policy. we are lenient with everything but even our district will not let kids start without compliance with immunizations. They must have at least one of each and get the rest of them in a timely manner. Bring this to the attention of your principal and then admin if you get no results. Be sure you know what the policy is before you tell them how many aren't compliant. if it's a new immunization, they get reminders every three months and will be excluded in the fall of the next year without it. you have to have admin back up though. If it's in writing they will be much more likely to help you out.

[a.holland]

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[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

My school gives kids 60 days to get caught up on immunizations and it's vicious circle all year getting them compliant. I have 463 immunization reminders (out of 700 students) to send out! Don't most schools in the states require you to have all immunizations or you don't get in...exception for those exemptions for religious reasons, etc..

What to do...what to do...

This is Crazy ! We give students 20 days to get caught up with immunizations and if they don't they can't come to school until they are up to date.

I'm sorry you are going through this, I personally think 60 days is way to long.

[guest83140]

I shorten the load like this: They can't enroll in school unless the shots are up to date. Then every month, I run a shot list. Out of 750, the monthly list is around 40 kids. I give them 30 days. Half get it done. The other half get one call warning. Then by the deadline, I call in 5-10 kids and tell mom to come get them, they are not allowed back until they have shot in hand. And the next month, the same thing. I do this until the last day of school. I run a list for the summer and mail them close to school returning. That list is sent to the receiving school. They are not allowed to enroll until they come back with the shot. Period. I have never sent off more than 100 letters unless it was for a health screening notification or health warning letter.