Orange County Grand Jury
• 2016-2017
• Agency Response
Response to:
Ouch! – Now That Didn’t Hurt: The Implementation of the Vaccination Bill SB 277 in Orange County Schools 05/15/17
School District Orange County Grand Jury Report Ouch! Now That Didn't Hurt:*
⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 5 findings
F1
The impact of SB 277 on school districts in Orange Ryan A. Ruelas County was minimal. Districts were prepared and staffed with well trained personnel. The Anaheim Elementary School District agrees with this finding. Office and Health Services staff were trained regarding SB 277 requirements to ensure compliance with the law was enforced consistently in all district schools.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
School districts should continue to track students with grandfathered personal belief exemptions to ensure these students have the required vaccinations before they reach the next reporting levels. This recommendation has been implemented by the Anaheim Elementary School District. All personal belief exemptions are entered into our student data information system and are tracked monthly for compliance to ensure that parents are informed well in advance of needed immunizations. Parents of preschool aged students are given individual reports in January detailing the specific immunizations their child needs for enrollment in Kindergarten for the upcoming school year. Similarly, parents of 6th grade students matriculating to 7th grade are notified in January of the need for additional immunizations required for 7th grade registration.
F2
There were very few problems that arose with medical exemptions for vaccinations. Health clerks and school nurses were able to handle any discrepancies. The Anaheim Elementary School District agrees with this finding. Training and procedural documents were developed in the Fall of 2016 to ensure that all medical exemptions contained required information so that student attendance was uninterrupted.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Districts should continue to monitor student vaccination percentages to maintain the threshold defined by the CDPH. This recommendation has been implemented by the Anaheim Elementary School District. The Office of Pupil Services coordinates training regarding immunization enrollment requirements in September and January of each year for all District office staff, nurses, and health clerks. Health clerk procedures require that a report is generated each month to ensure compliance and early notification of parents regarding upcoming immunization due dates. The District Nurse Coordinator oversees compliance regarding immunizations and personal belief exemptions by generating reports from our student data management system on an ongoing basis to ensure that immunization rates meet or exceed the CDPH threshold. Respectfully Submitted, Leslie Coghlan Leslie Coghlan Director Pupil Services
F3
Personal belief exemptions that were grandfathered in are professionally tracked with timely notifications to parents as to when vaccinations are due to be completed. The Anaheim Elementary School District agrees with this finding. Training and procedures for utilizing our Student Data Management System to track grandfathered personal belief exemptions were developed and communicated to all office and health staff. Staff are 1001 S. East Street, directed to notify parents both by telephone and letter regarding Anaheim, CA 92805 upcoming vaccination due dates to avoid interruption of a student's Phone 714-517-7500 education. Fax 714-517-8538 Anaheimelementary.org
No recommendations for this finding
F4
Orange County school districts made every effort to make vaccination information available using social media, direct mailings and links on school websites to clinics in the area. The Anaheim Elementary School District agrees with this finding. The Anaheim Elementary School District posted information regarding SB 277 requirements as well as the location of local clinics in both English and Spanish on the main page of our website. In addition, we provided this information in school newsletters and by direct mailing to affected families.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
School nurses, LVN's and health clerks directly notified the parents of students with vaccination lapses and those requiring boosters for pre-K, kindergarten and 7th grade well in advance of the due dates. The Anaheim Elementary School District agrees with this finding. All school office staff and health services personnel were trained in Fall 2016 and immediately began notifying parents of students in all grades of requirements to be met by January 1, 2017 as well as immunizations required for those changing grade spans for the 2017-2018 school year.
No recommendations for this finding
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.