PSI- BACK TO SCHOOL FORMS
action plan and requires paperwork to take medications in school for asthma, seizures, ADHD, diabetes,
allergies, FND, or any other diagnosis, get to work on those forms over the summer. In August and
September, doctors’ offices are jammed with last-minute office visits and requests for completion of
administrative tasks like sports clearance, medication forms, maintenance medication refills, and action
plan renewals. This paperwork can be time-consuming, and delays could cause important deadlines to
be missed. This year, get out ahead of the herd! With several ADHD medications on backorder, it might
take weeks to get a prescription filled at the pharmacy. Get your paperwork to your child’s health care
provider during the summer break so that medication can be ordered in a timely fashion, your forms are
completed before the pre-school rush, vaccine status can be verified, and catch-up immunizations can
be administered if needed. There are mandatory intervals between some vaccines in a series and not all
offices have surplus stock, so don’t assume the shot you need will be available if you wait until the last
possible moment.
Don’t be the reason your child misses out on a school trip or participation in their extra-
curricular of choice. Make sure your action plans, vaccine records, medication permissions, and school
health forms are up-to-date and complete way before the start of the school year. Then you can save
the last-minute panic for buying school supplies!
As the school year draws to a close and we look forward to some well-earned time off over the summer,
it’s important to remember we have the power protect our educational communities from vaccine-preventable
illnesses. This requires documenting every student’s vaccination status, which amounts to a whole lot of
paperwork.
And while disease prevention is the ultimate goal, according to the CDC website, school vaccination
assessments are also important for identifying pockets of the population that are under-vaccinated and who may
be particularly vulnerable during an epidemic. We’ve seen outbreaks of both Measles and Mumps in Ohio in
recent years, so it’s more than just a theoretical danger. A child’s incomplete immunization status might make
them ineligible to attend school for their own safety during an outbreak. State immunization programs report
aggregate school vaccination data to the CDC, who then uses these to steer resources to populations in need.
There are many reasons to vaccinate children as early as possible:
– Contagious illnesses that just decades ago killed or injured thousands of youngsters each year are now
eradicated in the United States as a direct result of widespread mandated immunization.
– Vaccines are safe and effective. Immunizations don’t get approved by governing agencies until they have
successfully completed a grueling, often years-long vetting process that includes thousands of human
participants.
– Mandated vaccination protects vulnerable patients. Certain high-risk populations cannot get some
vaccines— this includes babies under a year of age, children with some chronic illnesses, immune-
compromised patients, cancer sufferers, elderly individuals with waning immunity, and those with severe
allergies. Getting nearly everyone vaccinated creates “herd immunity” which protects those who aren’t
suitable vaccine candidates.
– Getting vaccinated saves time, misery, and money in the long run. They say an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure. This holds true for preventative care like vaccination: avoiding illness is certainly
easier, less painful, requires less time away from work or school, and carries fewer long-term risks of
consequences than suffering through it.
– Widespread immunization protects future generations. One real-life example is the eradication of
Smallpox, a disease that killed or severely disabled its victims only a few generations ago. Because the
threat of disease was eliminated by virtue of an aggressive vaccine campaign, we no longer even need to
vaccinate against it. Rubella is another prime case: When mothers are Rubella immune, they cannot pass
it down to their babies during delivery, which means fewer cases of severe birth defects and infant death.
It’s a lot of work to document each student’s vaccine status, but it’s important, for so many reasons, to protect
the student body as a whole. Even beyond that, widespread vaccination reduces the number of vectors for
disease, protecting individuals even one or two degrees separated from students, including teachers,
administrators, grandparents, and baby siblings. The summer break is an excellent time to get up-to-date on
student vaccination. Please encourage all parents to submit up-to-date vaccine forms at the start of the school
year.