Pennsylvania looks to tighten vaccine requirements for school children
Pennsylvania wants to tighten vaccine requirements at schools to raise the state's vaccination rate to the national average, officials announced Thursday.
A proposal from the state's Health and Education departments would require students to have all their shots within five days of starting school or provide a medical certificate saying when they would receive the inoculations, according to a news release from the departments.
Current law gives students eight months to finish vaccination regimens as long as they have the first dose in the regimen by the time they start school. Under the proposal, they would still have to have the first shot by the time they start.
The proposal would also set a requirement that students entering grade 12 get a pertussis vaccine and a shot to protect against meningitis.
About 91 percent of kindergartners starting school in Pennsylvania are vaccinated, according to a fact sheet issued with the proposal, compared to a rate of over 95 percent in the majority of states.
Pennsylvania's rate is too low to create herd immunity, a situation in which the number of unvaccinated people is small enough to ensure a disease won't spread among them, according to the departments. The proposed rules aim to achieve herd immunity in schools, officials said.
Allegheny County's vaccination rate was 96.7 percent in April 2015, according to the county's most recent immunization report.
“It may or may not have much of an impact on us here in Allegheny County, but I think it will have an impact on the rest of the state,” said Dr. Karen Hacker, Allegheny County Health Department director.
Pennsylvania children from kindergarten through grade 12 are required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B and — unless they can show immunity to it — varicella, also known as chickenpox, according to the departments. Many vaccines require multiple doses, and additional shots are required on entering seventh grade, according to the fact sheet.
The proposal requires approval from governing boards in the departments of Health and Education, which officials estimate could take nine months to two years. New vaccination requirements likely would take effect in the following school year.
The change would affect public, private, parochial and non-public schools.
The proposal would not change exemptions from the vaccination requirements for religious and medical reasons, according to the fact sheet.
Another exemption allows students to opt out “on the basis of a strong moral or ethical conviction similar to a religious belief.”
State Sen. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat, has proposed legislation that would eliminate the “philosophical” exemption while leaving intact the religious and medical exemptions.
Wes Venteicher is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5676 or wventeicher@tribweb.com.
