vaccinations at FCPS?

[Anonymous]

I do not want to vaccinate my child for HEP B for many reasons.... I read it is required on the FCPS site -- is this true? What do they do about kids who are not vaccinated? Do they refuse to allow them in school? I plan to vaccinate, but only for certain things. HEP B can only be caught through blood or sex and so I don't think it's a necessary vaccination for a kindergartener. I also never had a HEP B vaccination until I was 30 years old and I was traveling abroad. I got it "just in case". I don't know why HEP B would be required. It's not like HIB, measles, mumps, etc that are highly contagious diseases.

[Anonymous]

There are exemptions for religious reasons (must complete an affidavit, I think) or medical reasons (must be documented by a doctor that vaccination could be detrimental to the child's health. (There's also one for homelessness but it's not an exemption from vaccinating, per se, it's an exemption from providing documentation of vaccination.).

There is no exemption if you choose not to vaccinate for other reasons.

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/legacy-content/867SHQ2A8613/$FILE/R2101.pdf

[Anonymous]

Whether you think the Hep B vax is necessary or not, these vaccinations are required by VA law. So it's not something FCPS came up with; the schools are required under state law to make sure students have documentation of these vaccinations. I don't know if the school has any wiggle room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: HEP B can only be caught through blood or sex and so I don't think it's a necessary vaccination for a kindergartener.

HEP B can be caught through other things besides blood or sex. According to an NIH website, "you could get hepatitis B through contact with an infected person’s blood, semen, or other body fluid. (bold is mine)

You could get hepatitis B from

•being born to a mother with hepatitis B
•having sex with an infected person
•being tattooed or pierced with unsterilized tools that were used on an infected person
•getting an accidental needle stick with a needle that was used on an infected person
•using an infected person’s razor or toothbrush
•sharing drug needles with an infected person"

[Anonymous]

It's pretty much all or nothing unless you want to homeschool. The only exemption is religious (or medical but that's hard to get) and you have to reject all vaccines if you take the religious exemption.

[Anonymous]

Can I just encourage OP and others to vaccinate. I know there are lots of sites that give out scary info., but there really are children who are so medically fragile that they cannot receive vaccinations. If your child is healthy, s/he should be vaccinated.

My first child was born with a severe heart defect. Had she lived to go to school, she would not have been able to receive most vaccinations. Kids like this are looking at a death sentence if your healthy (but unvaccinated) child gets a disease and passes it through the school.

Getting vaccinated is partly for your own safety and partly a moral/civic duty to the frail and weak in our communities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whether you think the Hep B vax is necessary or not, these vaccinations are required by VA law. So it's not something FCPS came up with; the schools are required under state law to make sure students have documentation of these vaccinations. I don't know if the school has any wiggle room.

You are such a liar. Or, you're really that gullible. There are medical exemptions used for many reasons. There are philisophical exemptions in many states. In the DC metro area, there religious exemptions that are required by law to be honored without question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's pretty much all or nothing unless you want to homeschool. The only exemption is religious (or medical but that's hard to get) and you have to reject all vaccines if you take the religious exemption.

Again, this is a flat out lie. I vaccinated my kids in the beginning. Only recently did I realize the dangers of vaccines through my own children's vaccine injuries. So now I use the religious exemption and I'm never questioned, even though I used to vaccinate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's pretty much all or nothing unless you want to homeschool. The only exemption is religious (or medical but that's hard to get) and you have to reject all vaccines if you take the religious exemption.

Again, this is a flat out lie. I vaccinated my kids in the beginning. Only recently did I realize the dangers of vaccines through my own children's vaccine injuries. So now I use the religious exemption and I'm never questioned, even though I used to vaccinate.

It is NOT a lie. The reason you are able to do that is because your religious views can change and you can stop vaccinating entirely. But if you chose to get your child one vaccination now and not others and still try to take the religious exemption, you would have a problem. I know this because I started using the religious exemption after vaccine injuries so my kids are all partially vaccinated. You really don't know what you're talking about and you need to stop calling people liars.

[Anonymous]

Do you all know how many lives have been saved by vaccinations? IMHO, kids that can be vaccinated but aren't need to be isolated from society. No school, no playgrounds, etc.

[Anonymous]

How would the school know if you had already partially vaccinated or not?

[Anonymous]

Both of my kids are in FCPS with religious exemptions. They have had some vaccinations that we don't object to...but which ones are between the doctors and ourselves.

As far as the school knows, they have had no vaccinations at all. I don't think anyone other than the registrar who registered them for K and the public health nurse assigned to our school has access to those records. It wasn't mentioned when I handed in the religous exemption form instead of the vaccination record when I registered them, and has not been mentioned since. Per county guidelines, my children could be excluded from school during an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. However, when there was a newsletter worthy chicken pox outbreak at the school, we were not informed directly or asked to keep the kids home for a while. I honestly don't think the school thinks twice about it. They just shove it in the file cabinet and forget about it.

[Anonymous]

You're probably right about the school not thinking about it twice; but you're putting other children at risk -- children who cannot handle the vaccinations and cannot handle getting the disease.

There is a level of selfishness to the idea of herd immunity for kids who are healthy and just don't want to get vaccinated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're probably right about the school not thinking about it twice; but you're putting other children at risk -- children who cannot handle the vaccinations and cannot handle getting the disease.

There is a level of selfishness to the idea of herd immunity for kids who are healthy and just don't want to get vaccinated.

I understand that others may think that it is selfish and reckless. Some people might think that driving in a full burka might be unsafe. Some people might think that choosing holistic medicine is ridiculous. The reality of it all is the beauty of the United States of America. I am not relying on herd immunity to keep my children safe. I am relying on God. That is why there are religious exemptions available. I would like to think that administration would not place a child with an immune deficiency in a classroom with an unvaccinated child and it would be wise for the parents of a child with such issues to ask exactly that of the school administration when classes are being assigned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both of my kids are in FCPS with religious exemptions. They have had some vaccinations that we don't object to...but which ones are between the doctors and ourselves.

As far as the school knows, they have had no vaccinations at all. I don't think anyone other than the registrar who registered them for K and the public health nurse assigned to our school has access to those records. It wasn't mentioned when I handed in the religous exemption form instead of the vaccination record when I registered them, and has not been mentioned since. Per county guidelines, my children could be excluded from school during an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease. However, when there was a newsletter worthy chicken pox outbreak at the school, we were not informed directly or asked to keep the kids home for a while. I honestly don't think the school thinks twice about it. They just shove it in the file cabinet and forget about it.

The school probably doesn't think about it but if the Health Dept comes and looks into it, you could have a problem. Most physicians will not leave out the vaccinations your kids have already had when filling out medical forms. In most cases, you can't pick and choose vaccines if you sign the religious exemption. I do know people who have had to defend their exemption.