QUOTE
About 200 MCAS students have not been immunized
By Matt Field
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 5:08 PM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — Michigan City Area Schools began a rolling process of making sure students had proper vaccination records, giving non-compliant students another chance to stay in school.
Twelfth and Eighth graders without vaccination records were told Monday — the first day of the Second Semester — to come back with plans to get vaccinated, proof of vaccination or an objection form. Other grades will follow.
Although MCAS staff have been waging a PR campaign for months to inform students and parents of new state rules requiring Sixth through 12th graders to receive certain vaccinations, some students have yet to get shots.
As of Tuesday night’s School Board meeting, MCAS spokeswoman Betsy Kohn said about 200 students were non-compliant.
Non-compliant students who don’t get their status resolved will be excluded from school, said Linda Bechinski, a Michigan City High School nurse.
Bechinski told the School Board that the last-minute outreach to 12th graders Monday seemed to work.
“We had about 68 or 70 in the 12th grade that we called on Monday,” she said. “As of (Tuesday) we didn’t have to exclude any of them. I think this knowledge of the possibility of being excluded has really taken hold.”
Superintendent Barbara Eason-Watkins told the board that MCAS has to provide excluded students with educational support.
Sixth through 12th graders now have to receive Varicella (chicken pox), Meningitis and Tetanus/Diptheria/Pertussis vaccines.
Kohn said the effort to lower the number of non-compliant students continues.
“We’re working daily and hourly to get that number down,” she said.
By Matt Field
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 5:08 PM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — Michigan City Area Schools began a rolling process of making sure students had proper vaccination records, giving non-compliant students another chance to stay in school.
Twelfth and Eighth graders without vaccination records were told Monday — the first day of the Second Semester — to come back with plans to get vaccinated, proof of vaccination or an objection form. Other grades will follow.
Although MCAS staff have been waging a PR campaign for months to inform students and parents of new state rules requiring Sixth through 12th graders to receive certain vaccinations, some students have yet to get shots.
As of Tuesday night’s School Board meeting, MCAS spokeswoman Betsy Kohn said about 200 students were non-compliant.
Non-compliant students who don’t get their status resolved will be excluded from school, said Linda Bechinski, a Michigan City High School nurse.
Bechinski told the School Board that the last-minute outreach to 12th graders Monday seemed to work.
“We had about 68 or 70 in the 12th grade that we called on Monday,” she said. “As of (Tuesday) we didn’t have to exclude any of them. I think this knowledge of the possibility of being excluded has really taken hold.”
Superintendent Barbara Eason-Watkins told the board that MCAS has to provide excluded students with educational support.
Sixth through 12th graders now have to receive Varicella (chicken pox), Meningitis and Tetanus/Diptheria/Pertussis vaccines.
Kohn said the effort to lower the number of non-compliant students continues.
“We’re working daily and hourly to get that number down,” she said.