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Schools: Few kids without vaccines

Weeks before school started, officials worried that they would have to exclude students from school for not having immunizations on time. But indications are that districts across the region were widely successful in getting students to comply with new state regulations.

Altoona Area officials in late August said 465 students had yet to receive immunizations or provide records of them. But Assistant Superintendent Brad Hatch said last week only five students are currently excluded from school because their shots remain outstanding.

“We are collaborating with pediatricians to get them back in school. All they need is a plan to get their immunizations scheduled,” Hatch said.

In prior years, students had eight months from the first day of the school year to receive all needed vaccinations. A state regulation initiated in the spring shortened that grace period to five days after the start of school or else students would be excluded.

Hatch lauded school nurses, principals and community relations director Paula Foreman for their efforts in contacting parents of the hundreds of students who until recently were not in compliance with the new regulation aimed at preventing illness.

Sixty students at Portage Area didn’t have their vaccinations completed or on file with the district as summer came to a close, but Superintendent, Eric Zelanko said last week that all students are present.

“Thanks to the hard work of school nurses and principals, along with local health care folks, we are able to report 100 percent compliance with the new regulations. They made plenty of phone calls, emails and face-to-face contact with parents since last spring to increase awareness of the new requirement and consequences. I think the fact we are 100 percent shows how great of job they did,” Zelanko said.

Similarly, Tyrone Area and Williamsburg Com­munity school districts reported all students had updated immunizations on time.

Claysburg-Kimmel school district has one student excluded currently because of the regulation, Super­intendent Norman Hatten said.

Chestnut Ridge had an elementary student excluded, but a plan is in place for that child to receive the needed immunizations, Superintendent Mark Kudlawiec said.

“The senior high had two cyberschoolers, that are in our in-house cyber, that need theirs. However, that is not affecting their education being they are in cyberschool,” Kudlawiec said.

The state allows for exemptions to the regulation, which some families of students in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown schools are exercising, said diocese spokesman Tony DeGol.

“We have not had to send any students home for not having immunizations. About seven students have requested exemptions, which we will honor,” he said. Exemption forms may be submitted for medical reasons, religious belief, philosophical or ethical conviction, the state website states. However, those exempted students may be excluded from school during an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable illness.

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.

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