Deadline looms for kids' shots: Students without vaccinations could be sent home

Some Seymour Community Schools students will not be allowed to attend class if they have not received all required vaccinations or have not scheduled appointments for those vaccinations by today.

Seymour and Medora Community Schools appear to be the only Jackson County districts that will take that step.

Sherry Reinhart, nurse coordinator for the Seymour school district, said she sent letters out as recently as two weeks ago reminding parents about the issue.

“We do have some kids that have not gotten all their vaccinations,” she said.

Reinhart would not disclose how many students are included because the numbers won’t be accurate until later this week, she added.

“I don’t want to put a number out yet because there are some that have been vaccinated that we haven’t received documentation from their doctor’s office,” she said. “And some have scheduled their appointments and just haven’t told us.”

Families also can request exemptions from vaccinations for medical or religious reasons.

Reinhart said the main priority for the schools right now is students in sixth grade, who need to receive a booster shot for varicella, more commonly known as chickenpox, as well as vaccinations for pertussis or whooping cough and meningococcal, widely known as meningitis.

This story appears in the print edition of The Tribune. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.