Meningitis Vaccine Warning
Students entering the 7th and 12th grades in September will be prevented from attending classes unless they can prove they have had the vaccine for meningococcal meningitis, a rare but serious bacterial infection.
The requirement, adopted by the state a year ago, has at least one school district scrambling to get parents to hand in the necessary paperwork for their children.
Lorraine Talmage, the East Hampton High School nurse, reported during the district’s school board meeting Tuesday that there are about 85 students — 65 at the high school and 20 at the middle school — for whom proof was missing. Classes begin Sept. 7 in East Hampton, but the vaccination paperwork is due at the nurse’s office by Sept. 1. School officials in Springs, Bridgehampton, and Sag Harbor had not responded to requests for information by press time.
Ms. Talmage said she had sent three letters beginning in March, in English and Spanish, to parents. Email notifications have also been sent via the district’s Google Groups system. “In all my years of school nursing, I’ve never had parents ignore something like this,” she said.
According to the East Hampton School District’s website, on which the state rules are posted, students entering 7th grade need to have had one dose at any point before they begin school this year. Students entering 12th grade generally need a booster shot if they had a first shot previously. A third dose is needed if the booster was given before the student’s 16th birthday, however.
Ms. Talmage said it was possible parents believed their doctors had faxed proper paperwork to the school, but that was not the case. She suggested parents check with them if they thought this was done.
“Most of the time, the state just eases the new immunization requirements in. This year? Uh-uh. . . . It’s really tricky. Since my first letter went out . . . we’ve been fighting this constantly, trying to get parents to get it for their children.”
In Montauk, Jack Perna, the district superintendent, said by email the school nurse did “not foresee a problem” since half of the incoming seventh grade received the meningococcal meningitis vaccine last year. A notice has gone out, however, and a second notice is in the works, he said.