Parents of children in Oregon schools and daycares have about two more weeks to update their child’s immunization documents, or risk keeping them home indefinitely.
School Exclusion Day is February 15th. All children who are not up to date or complete on their immunizations will be excluded from their school or child care facility.
Stacy de Assis Matthews, the school immunization coordinator for the Oregon Health Authority, said immunizations are one of the most important ways you can protect your child and your community.
“The goal of Oregon’s immunization law is to make sure kids can go to school in a safe and healthy environment that’s free of vaccine preventable diseases,” she said.
Oregon’s school immunization requirements date back to the late 1970’s, amidst an abundance of measles outbreaks in schools.
School Exclusion Day was introduced in the early 1980’s. According to the OHA, the deadline has since helped stop similar outbreaks in Oregon schools.