New Immunization Requirements for 2010-2011 School Year

Here is the annual update of the Immunization Summary for Child Care, Head Start, Pre‐School & School Attendance for the 2010‐11 school year.

Please note that the Ohio Department of Health Director’s Journal has been updated; the Director’s Journal contains the requirements for immunizations for Ohio students. The changes in the Director’s Journal will be effective for the 2010‐11 school year. A brief summary of the changes are:

The addition of a Tdap booster requirement for 7th grade

The addition of the 2nd dose of varicella

A requirement that the 4th dose of polio be administered on or after the 4th birthday

The most significant change for schools is that all 7th graders will be required to have the Tdap – a tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis booster. Currently, only 30% of Ohio’s 7th graders have received this booster, therefore this requirement will most likely affect the majority of incoming 7th grade students. As with other school immunization requirements, students who do not provide documentation of this immunization are subject to exclusion from school. To avoid exclusion, we encourage you to share this information with the families of 6th graders soon so that they have time to get this booster before school starts in the fall.

We have already received a number of questions regarding this change. Here are some points of clarification:

Any student who completed the original DTP/DTaP/DT series and later received Td or Tdap for an injury or other reason within 5 years of entering 7th grade will meet this requirement and not need to be re‐immunized for entry to 7th grade

In this situation, students who received only Td rather than Tdap should be immunized with Tdap 5 years after the Td immunization

CDC has said that Tdap can be administered as soon as two years after Td

In the absence of contraindications, parents should be encouraged to get Tdap as a booster for their students rather than only Td


For ALL Kindergarten Entries:

K-5 doses of DTaP, DTP, or DT, or any combination, if the fourth dose was administered prior to the 4th birthday

K-4 doses of any combination of OPV or IPV, the final dose must be administered on or after the 4th birthday regardless of the number of previous doses.

K‐12
2 doses of MMR. Dose 1 must be administered on or after the first birthday. The second dose must be administered at least 28 days after dose 1.

K‐11
3 doses of Hepatitis B. The second dose must be administered at least 28 days after the first dose. The third dose must be given at least 16 weeks after the first dose and at least 8 weeks after the second dose. The last dose in the series (third or fourth dose), must not be administered before age 24 weeks.

Kindergarten
2 doses of varicella vaccine must be administered prior to entry.


For more information you may call the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Immunization Program hotline at 800‐282‐0546.

Further information can also be found on the ODH web site:
http://www.odh.ohio.gov/odhPrograms/idc/immunize/imunchsc.aspx


See you soon,

Nurse Donna