Currently, kids can’t go to school unless they have all of the required immunizations, but families have 8 months to get them all done.
Advertisement
Secretary of Health Dr. Karen Murphy and Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera Thursday announced that regulations regarding vaccination requirements for school children are being revised in order to protect students from illnesses, according to state Sen.
These requirements presently include a provisional period, which allows students who have received the first dose of a multi-dose vaccine to attend school for up to eight months while they complete all of the required immunizations.
Current regulations bar children from entering school if they are missing the first dose.
Also high schools students would need to get pertussis and meningitis vaccines before entering 12th grade.
Pennsylvania’s proposed changes require reviews by advisory boards and opportunities for public comment.
The regulations apply to public, private, parochial and non-public schools.
A few changes are coming to vaccination rules for Pennsylvania school children.
The departments also are proposing to change the date by which schools are required to submit immunization reports, from October 15 of each school year to December 31, and to require reporting electronically.
Pennsylvania law requires that children receive certain vaccinations before they may attend school, though exemptions exist for a pre-existing health issue, religious objection and “strong moral or ethical conviction similar to a religious belief”. Senate Bill 696 would remove this exemption and would not affect the religious exemption or the medical exemption. “Pennsylvania immunization rates have been lower than would have been the target, and we’re dedicated to increasing those”, said Dr. Murphy.
Advertisement
New Jersey has a religious exemption, but not one for philosophical or moral reasons. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery/Delaware. The legislature in Sacramento recently overcame highly vocal opposition and eliminated the religious and philosophical exemptions.
