Back to School Vaccination Information

All children, from preschoolers to college students, need vaccines. Making sure that children of all ages receive all their vaccinations on time is one of the most important things you can do as a parent. Not only with this ensure your children’s long-term health but it will improve the health of friends, classmates, and others in your community.

The Illinois health department recommends all available childhood vaccinations. New this year is the requirement of 2 doses of the Varivax (chickenpox) vaccine for kindergarten entry. For the 2015-16 school year, at least one dose of the MCV4 or meningitis vaccine will be required for all 6th grade students.

During the early years of life, your children need vaccines to protect them from diseases that can be serious and even life-threatening. Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children increase the risk of disease for their children, in addition to increasing the disease risk for other children and adults throughout the entire community. For example, vulnerable newborns too young to have received the maximum protection from the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine are getting sick in large numbers due to exposure to under-vaccinated older kids and adults.

Flu vaccines are recommended all children older than 6 months old to help keep them healthy. By getting all of your children as well as other family members and caregivers vaccinated, you can help protect those babies younger than 6 months old. Ask your family’s doctor or nurse about getting flu shots or the nasal spray to protect against flu. Older kids should get at least one flu vaccine (the shot or nasal spray for healthy kids) every year.

As kids get older, they are more at risk for catching certain diseases, like meningococcal meningitis, so they need the protection that vaccines provide. The recommended immunization schedule is regularly updated to include new vaccines and reflect current research. It may have changed since your child was first immunized. Specific vaccines, like the HPV vaccine, helps protect against certain cancers and are recommended to be given during the preteen (11-12) years. If your preteens or teens haven’t already gotten their vaccines, they should get caught up as soon as possible.

For some other diseases like whooping cough, the protection from vaccine doses received in childhood wears off over time. That’s why 11 year-olds are also recommended to get the booster shot called Tdap. All teens and adults who have not gotten Tdap should get this booster as soon as possible. Tdap is a version of the DTaP vaccine given to infants and young children.

The CDC provides an immunization schedule for people ages 7 through 18 years for parents and doctors to help protect children and teens from vaccine-preventable disease.