Kids without vaccines still going to class in Pierce County despite law tightening exemptions
A new state law prohibiting personal exemptions for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine went into effect earlier this year.
In October, Tacoma Public Schools sent out 161 letters notifying families that their children would be excluded from class and need to either be vaccinated or find a new exemption.
Those families have since come into compliance, said district spokesperson Dan Voelpel.
Hundreds of unvaccinated students are still coming to class, however — mostly due to changing enrollment numbers as students enter and leave the district.
Some families are working with the school district to either appeal their exclusion decision or still are working with the district to come into compliance, Voelpel said.
Health officials say that low vaccination rates puts students with compromised immune systems more at risk of contracting a disease, while high vaccination rates protect vulnerable children who cannot be vaccinated.
Enforcement of law-abiding vaccination records is up to districts, said Danielle Koenig with the state Department of Health.
“It can cause all kinds of problems if (students) don’t have their paperwork,” Keonig said. “You don’t know if they are protected.”
The unknowns
While TPS sent out 161 exclusion letters, the district staff say they are unsure how many students were barred from class.
That’s because the data isn’t tracked by central administration but by individual schools.
Other school districts follow similar protocol.
The Puyallup School District sent 55 exclusion letters on Jan. 8. It’s too early to know how many exclusions have occurred, said district spokesman Brian Fox. He added that the 55 out-of-compliance families have been whittled down to 40.
In the Bethel School District, at least 105 students have received exclusion notices for immunizations this year, said spokesperson Doug Boyles.
Working with families
Once students are enrolled in the district, they get a 30-day grace period to come into compliance with state vaccination laws if they aren’t already.
For many students, that was the first day of school, but new students enroll throughout the year, Voelpel said.
As of Friday, there were 584 students at Tacoma Public Schools that had immunization compliance issues — about 2 percent of the population.
About 151 of those students are homeless and are exempt from providing exemption paperwork via the McKinney-Vento Act. Another large group are English Language Learner families, Voelpel said.
“The ones we know from families that don’t speak English, we want to work with individually to make sure they understand what’s required before we exclude them from schools,” Voelpel said.
The district is still working with the other families to come into compliance.
TPS is now gearing up its protocol for immunization records for next school year, Voelpel said.
Starting Aug. 1, students may begin school or child care only if they received all the required immunizations and submitted medically verified records on or before the first day of attendance or face exclusion, according to DOH.
