Here’s What We Know: Required Vaccinations for Back to School
The new academic year is around the corner. You know who your child’s new teacher is, and you have the supply list. It’s also time to consider what vaccines are required for school. Why do kids need vaccines?
“Vaccines are a tool that pediatricians use to help teach someone’s immune system,” says Dr. Sean Cullen, instructor in Pediatrics and Pediatric Scientist Development Program research fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine. “There are upwards of 20 vaccine-preventable diseases today—20 diseases children aren’t getting at the rates they did before the development of vaccines.”
What Vaccines Are Required for School
For your child to attend school, you must provide immunization records to your child’s school. These records must be submitted within the first two weeks of class. Otherwise, your child cannot remain in school.
Vaccination requirements start when your child enters day care or preschool and continue through college. Vaccines are necessary whether your child attends public, private or religious school. The only exception is children with medical exemptions.
The New York State Department of Health requires school-age children to receive the following:
- Diphtheria and tetanus toxoid-containing vaccine and pertussis vaccine (DTaP or Tdap)
- Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine (HiB)—for children in day care or preschool
- Hepatitis B vaccine
- Measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR)
- Meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY)—grades 7 through 12, with a booster at 16 years of age
- Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV)—for day care or preschool
- Polio vaccine
- Varicella (chickenpox) vaccine
If you’ve gotten behind on vaccines, don’t worry. You can catch up. Talk with your child’s pediatrician to learn about dose requirements and minimum intervals between doses as you get back on the recommended immunization schedule.
How Vaccines Work
Vaccines help guard against future disease, offering protection you may not realize you need.
“None of us expect to get in a car accident, just like nobody expects their child to catch measles or whooping cough,” says Dr. David Laufgraben, board-certified general pediatrician at Weill Cornell Medicine. “But accidents can still happen, and vaccines—like seatbelts—help to protect your child from the unexpected.”
Infant immunization and school-aged vaccines protect your child’s health through the following:
- Antigen introduction. Every vaccine contains an antigen. Several types of antigens exist, such as weak or dead viruses or bacteria. Once antigens enter your child’s body, they cause the immune system to kick into gear.
- Antibody production. When your immune system notices the antigen, it creates proteins called antibodies. These proteins bind to the antigen and work to detect and stop potential threats to your good health.
- White blood cell attack. White blood cells multiply and travel through the bloodstream and tissues. These cells attack and destroy the antigen and help you regain good health.
- Continual monitoring. Once the threat is stopped, white blood cell production slows down. You don’t lose all these white blood cells though. A few stick around, keeping watch for the same antigen threat. At this point, you have protection (immunization) against future disease.
Vaccination Offers Safe, Low-Risk Protection
Receiving vaccines required for school is quick, and it often occurs during an annual wellness check. Your child can even receive multiple immunizations at one time, saving you time and stress.
Vaccines often undergo years of research before being offered to the public and are extremely safe and result in very few side effects.
In fact, your child may not notice any complications after receiving a vaccine. If symptoms arise, they’re typically mild and may include the following:
- Body aches
- Fever
- Swelling, redness or tenderness at the vaccination location
- Tiredness
Thankfully, these mild symptoms usually don’t last long. They typically go away on their own in a few days. Severe complications are extremely rare.
The Effects of Immunization Go Beyond Your Child
The importance of childhood vaccines required for school reaches beyond your child. It helps protect others at your child’s school. The more people who get vaccinated, the better.
“Even if there are individuals who get a disease,” Dr. Laufgraben says, “if the rest are vaccinated, then it’s unlikely for that disease to spread.”
This is known as herd immunity. It occurs when most people in a specific group get vaccinated.
Thanks to vaccines and herd immunity, diseases such as polio and tetanus are practically unheard of in America. However, none of these diseases is gone altogether. When large groups of people choose not to vaccinate, these illnesses may return.
This happened recently, when a number of people chose not to vaccinate. As a result, 2019 saw the most cases of measles in America since 1992. In New York City alone, a dip in vaccination rates led to an outbreak of 649 measles cases from September 30, 2018 to July 15, 2019, according to research published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
The only way to prevent future outbreaks is regular vaccination.
Vaccines Required for School After High School Graduation
Many colleges require vaccination, including the meningococcal vaccine. This vaccine is especially important if your child plans to live on campus. Because meningitis is a potentially life-threatening disease and can spread quickly among those living in close proximity to each other, college students are at a higher risk for contracting the illness.
Additionally, it’s a good idea for students to get annual flu vaccination and COVID-19 immunization. Receiving these each year helps protect against common viruses that can cause students to miss class, get behind in their studies and feel miserable.
Ready to knock vaccination off your to-do list? Find a doctor at Weill Cornell Medicine to help you with vaccines required for school.