There may be thousands of Kosciusko county students at risk for exclusion from school when schools begin enforcing the new state immunization mandates.
The new vaccine requirements for 6th to 12th graders includes a Tdap, (tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis) meningococcal conjugate vaccine, and two appropriately spaced varicella (chickenpox) vaccines or documentation of chickenpox disease.
Schools are allowed to give students a 20-day grace period from the time classes resumed this fall to show proof of the immunizations and schools are allowed after the end of the grace period to exclude children from attending classes.
The grace period have expired for many of the school corporations in Kosciusko County.
To help families comply with the new mandates the Kosciusko County Health Department will be holding two more after hours clinics planned for 6th to 12th graders.
A clinic will be held at Wawasee High School Tuesday from 4 to 7 p.m.
Another clinic will be held on Sept. 28 at Tippecanoe Valley High School from 4 to 7 pm.
These clinics are open to all 6th to 12th graders that live in Kosciusko County or attend a Kosciusko County school.
In order to receive a vaccine, families must bring the child's immunization record to enable as many people to be vaccinated as possible.
If families can not locate their child's vaccination record they may contact their school nurse, their family physician or the local health department.
Ensuring that children are properly vaccinated is critical.
Just last week an outbreak of chickenpox at a Boone County school prompted a decision from the Indiana State Department of Health and the Boone County Health Department that any child without proof of proper varicella immunization had to be excluded from school 21 days from the time of the final diagnosed case.
Several hundred students were immunized or had to turn in their shot records in a matter of days to avoid the exclusion. Officials do not want to see the same thing happen locally.
In addition to the vaccination clinic, an exercise to help KCHD prepare for an emergency will be held at the Tuesday clinic at Wawasee.
The exercise is held in cooperation with the Kosciusko County Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross, the Indiana Guard Reserve and the Wawasee School System.
Those attending the vaccination clinic are welcome to participate in the exercise as well, but participants of the exercise and the vaccination clinic will be entering through the same locations and may be standing in the same intake line but using different forms. We want to thank the community in advance for their cooperation during this event.
For more information on the new immunization mandates contact the Kosciusko County Health Department at 574- 372-3515
