Central Oregon – On Wednesday, students won’t be able to attend school if their records show missing immunizations. As so-called exclusion day approaches, officials are curious what this year’s nonmedical exemption rates will look like after an uptick in exemptions last year despite statewide efforts to reduce them.
Because nonmedical exemption rates are high in Oregon compared with other states, a law was passed to better educate parents before they choose to skip vaccinating their kids.
State and county officials may have hoped more education on vaccines would mean fewer families would opt out of them, but that wasn’t the case last school year among students entering school.
The Bulletin reports that while Oregon law requires that children in public or private schools, preschools or child care facilities receive certain vaccines, it used to be that parents could opt out with a “religious exemption” so their children could attend school despite lacking vaccinations. But a law that went into effect in March 2014 requires parents to learn about the benefits and risks of vaccines through their health care provider or a video online before they could receive an exemption.
For years, the state has measured kindergarten nonmedical immunization exemptions as a way to track how parents are choosing to vaccinate their children at the time they enter school.
The 2014-15 school year was the first affected by the new law. The statewide rate that year dropped to 5.8 percent of kindergarten nonmedical immunization exemptions, down from 7 percent the school year before.
But the most recent data available, from the 2015-16 school year, shows that rate squeaked up again to 6.2 percent statewide.
Each of Central Oregon’s county rates bumped up from 2014-15 to 2015-16, too: Jefferson County’s kindergarten nonmedical exemption rate went up from 1 percent to 1.7 percent; Crook County’s changed from 2.7 percent to 4.3 percent and Deschutes County’s moved from 8.3 percent to 8.7 percent.
Families of students whose records show they are missing vaccines and don’t have exemptions are notified ahead of exclusion day. Parents and guardians are reminded to get their children’s records up to date.
Last year, 1,900 notifications were sent out to families about missing records; 325 students were not allowed to attend school on exclusion day. This year, 1,400 notifications were sent out, so school officials are also expecting a lower number of students who need to be sent home.
Once students are excluded, they can return to school as soon as they receive their vaccines or get an exemption. They can get back to school as soon as the same day.
