By Rod Rose/The Lebanon Reporter
More than 5,200 Boone County children must have received mandatory vaccinations before they will be allowed to attend school next year.
A new law requires students in grades six through 12 receive three vaccinations that had been optional, although recommended, by the Indiana State Department of Health. Based on IDOE enrollment figures for the 2009-20 school year, that’s a projected 5,231 students in the Lebanon, Western Boone and Zionsville school districts.
The Boone County Health Department is working with area schools to provide the vaccines here, said Cindy Murphy, RN, director of the BCHD’s nursing and vital records division.
The required shots are of meningococcal conjugate, tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis (also called Tdap) and chickenpox (varicella) vaccines.
Meningococcal conjugate vaccines guard against bacterial meningitis, an infection of spinal cord fluid.
“We are trying to work with districts so we can do it during school time,” Murphy said Tuesday. “Individual appointments will be limited.”
For mroe of the story see Wednesday's Lebanon Reporter.
