To avoid outbreaks of disease and to keep our children and community healthy, Oregon requires by law that all students attending public and private schools, preschools,
child care facilities, and Head Start programs receive required vaccinations. To help increase the number of people vaccinated every year, these programs submit immunization records to the Health Department. When a student is not up-to-date on required vaccines or does not have proper documentation for an exemption, the student will receive a letter of exclusion from the Health Department.
Until proper documentation of immunization status is received, the student is unable
to return to school. This year’s school exclusion date is Wednesday, February 19, 2020.
Students can receive immunizations from their primary care provider, Lincoln County Public
Health, or one of our four school-based health centers. Some local pharmacies may also provide immunizations to adolescents 7 years and older. Because not all pharmacies are able to perform vaccinations, it is recommended to call the pharmacy of choice beforehand.
Thanks to vaccines, it has become less common to see vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. However, these outbreaks can still happen when groups of people go unvaccinated. For example, if a measles outbreak were to occur at a Lincoln County school, to control the spread of disease, unvaccinated children and staff would be excluded from school for 21 days. The more people who are vaccinated, the more difficult it is for the vaccine-preventable disease to spread; this is called herd immunity.
To find more information on what vaccinations your child needs for school, visit
http://www.co.lincoln.or.us/hhs/page/immunizations. The Lincoln County Public Health Clinic is
located at 36 SW Nye Street, Newport and is available at 541-265-4112.