Unvaccinated Public Schoolchildren Stay Home In Rockland

Public schools are among the public spaces banned to unvaccinated children during Rockland County's 30-day State of Emergency.

Until the SOE was declared, public school students had been largely unaffected by the county's earlier orders, which kept unvaccinated children away from schools in Monsey, Spring Valley and New Square where the immunization rate was lower than 95 percent.

With the executive order covering all schools in the county, Rockland BOCES Chief Operating Officer Dr. Mary Jean Marsico has been working with the county department of health, New York State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia in Albany and local school superintendents.

“The parents and guardians of children who are unvaccinated were all notified by their individual school districts," Marsico said in a statement. "None were permitted to attend classes on Wednesday and Thursday. Each of our school district superintendents in Rockland County are working closely to make the best of a very difficult situation. We’re expecting additional information from county officials soon.”

Her letter to parents is posted to the BOCES website.

According to the executive order, parents “will be held accountable” if their children violate the rule. That could mean penalties of a $500 fee or six months in jail.

However, county officials said at the outset they were not going to be actively enforcing it.

The point is to get kids vaccinated and, during religious holidays and spring break, to tamp down the number of contacts between contagious people and susceptible strangers.

Locations included in the countywide ban also include shopping centers, restaurants and places of worship. Outdoor gathering places are not included, according to county officials.

Although only 30 people went to the county's free vaccine clinic on Wednesday, many parents took kids to their pediatricians for the shot, The Journal News reported. They're angry that their kids will miss three days of school — under the State of Emergency, one dose of the vaccine plus four days' wait will allow a child to be considered vaccinated.

The vaccination rates for the 156 confirmed measles cases in Rockland County:

• 82.7 percent of measles victims have had 0 MMRs
• 3.8 percent have had 1 MMR
• 3.8 percent have had 2 MMRs
• 9.6 percent unknown status