Proof Of Whooping Cough Immunization Pending For Half Of LEUSD Students

Officials with the Lake Elsinore Unified School District may have an additional 30 days to verify that students are vaccinated against whooping cough due to legislation passed last week. The news coincides with a slow response by some parents to submit proof of immunization paperwork as required by law.

Under the new state law, students entering or advancing to grades seven through 12 in the 2011–12 school year must be immunized with a pertussis booster called the Tdap vaccine. That requirement went into effect July 1 and covers all students—current, new, and transfers—in public and private schools. But state Senate Bill 614, which legislators passed last week, grants districts an extra 30 days after classes start to verify vaccinations.

As the emergency bill awaits Governor Jerry Brown’s signature, there may be some sighs of relief at Lake Elsinore Unified.

“To date, about 50 percent of students have submitted the required proof of immunization paperwork,” said Mark Dennis, coordinator of community and media relations for the LEUSD. “We are pushing to ensure all students have the required documentation by the start of school," which begins Aug. 11.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is hailing last week’s legislative decision.

“I’m grateful that the Legislature has recognized our schools need some extra time to meet the immunization deadline,” he said in a July 14 news release. “We don’t want to see students lose precious learning time or be turned away from classes at the start of school.”

Each day a student misses school, the LEUSD loses funding. Dennis said he is hopeful the lackluster compliance to turn in immunization paperwork improves in the coming weeks.

“Despite the extension, we want to see 100 percent compliance by the start of school,” he said.

According to a July 15 report from University of Southern California Annenberg School’s Center for Health Reporting, the state documented 9,120 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, last year – the most in more than half a century. Ten of those cases were infant deaths, the report found. Torlakson’s office reports the number has risen to more than 11,000 cases since last year.

In addition to doctor offices, several pharmacies and the county-operated Lake Elsinore Family Care Center located at 2499 East Lakeshore Drive are offering the Tdap vaccine. Dennis said that funding cutbacks have eliminated the district’s ability to administer vaccines.

For more information on pertussis and the Tdap vaccine, visit the California Department of Education’s Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/pertussis.asp.