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What Every Immigrant Parent Needs To Know About Immunizations Before Enrolling Children Into Public Schools
Nanja Bongers
The United States of America is a nation of immigrants. Given the recent headlines regarding immigration, some who are new to the USA may be hesitant to send their children to public schools, particularly if they are undocumented. If this is your situation, don't be hesitant. Your children deserve an education and can get one, even when parents are undocumented. However, they must meet the vaccination requirements in order to attend public school. Here's what you need to know.
The Immigrant-Specific Controversy
Seems that everything related to politics is controversial today, even whether or not children of immigrants are fully vaccinated or not. One article says that young immigrant children may be behind on vaccination schedules, while another article says most documented immigrants are vaccinated better than US citizens.
All in all, if you are undocumented, it depends on where you're originally from and whether or not they required vaccinations in children. If you are documented, you and your children would have received the necessary vaccinations during your inprocessing. However, the state may have different requirements for public school attendance. Also, your children may have needed additional vaccinations since they were inprocessed.
The Requirements
In order to attend public school, children are required to be vaccinated. The requirements are determined by the individual states and DC. You can find a chart here that lists the vaccines that are required for enrollment in public school. However, be sure to contact the school district where you live to verify that the list is correct and, if it's not, to get a new list.
The Documentation
There's a number of documents that school districts require when admitting children into school, such as proof of residency, proof of age, previous school records and, of course, vaccinations record. However, in most states, the lack of a vaccinations record is the only documentation that will prevent your child from attending school while the other documents are being sent for or processed.
The Vaccinations
If you do not have previous vaccination records for your children and are unable to have them sent to you, an immunization service will be able to determine which vaccinations are necessary for school enrollment as well as for immigration status, and they can develop a schedule for the vaccinations to be given, if any need to be spaced apart. While you're there, ask the immunization service if they also vaccinate adults and, if they don't, ask them for a recommendation for you so you can be vaccinated as well.
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