Check Your School/Child Care's Rates Today!
It's back-to-school time, which also means it's time to check your school/child care's immunization and exemption rates to find out if the facility is at risk for a vaccine preventable disease outbreak. You can click here to search an online database of all school/child care rates.
How do you know if the rates are high enough? The chart below includes the required rate for community immunity (the level necessary to prevent an outbreak from spreading and threatening the vulnerable members of the community).
What can you do if you discover that the immunization rates at your school or child care are below safe levels? A few ideas:
How do you know if the rates are high enough? The chart below includes the required rate for community immunity (the level necessary to prevent an outbreak from spreading and threatening the vulnerable members of the community).
What can you do if you discover that the immunization rates at your school or child care are below safe levels? A few ideas:
- Share your concerns with school administrators. Sometimes low rates are simply a result of not enough parents getting their vaccination records turned in.
- Talk to other parents at your school about the importance of vaccination. You can share that you vaccinate on time and that you believe it's an important part of keeping your kids and the school community healthy.
- CPVC can help coordinate a guest speaker for a parent group (like a PTA meeting) or another kind of event at your school -- someone to talk with parents about the importance of immunizations and answer any questions they might have. CPVC can also provide you with information about immunization that can use for your school's newsletter or other communications.
- CPVC can also help you work with your local public health agency to arrange an on-site immunization clinic at your school.
Our Why We Care page lays the foundation for the issues we focus on.
“Individual freedom” is a highly-regarded value in Colorado, and we think that “freedom from” is an important part of that concept. As parents, we have the right to keep our children free from unnecessary risks posed by vaccine-preventable diseases. We also have a right to know whether the environments in which we place our children have adequate protections from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Colorado parents can be proud of what we achieved in 2014 with the passage of House Bill 14-1288. While there is always more work to be done, that legislation made important improvements to Colorado’s vaccine exemption policy:
HB 14-1288 helps to create healthier schools and communities. This is just one of the pro-health policies worth standing up for!
“Individual freedom” is a highly-regarded value in Colorado, and we think that “freedom from” is an important part of that concept. As parents, we have the right to keep our children free from unnecessary risks posed by vaccine-preventable diseases. We also have a right to know whether the environments in which we place our children have adequate protections from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Colorado parents can be proud of what we achieved in 2014 with the passage of House Bill 14-1288. While there is always more work to be done, that legislation made important improvements to Colorado’s vaccine exemption policy:
- Schools and licensed child care centers must publicly disclose immunization and exemption rates on request. This has allowed publications like Chalkbeat Colorado to create school comparison databases for families.
- The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment was directed to create an online education module for parents on the benefits and risks of vaccines.
- Prior to HB 14-1288, parents only needed to submit a nonmedical (religious or personal belief) exemption once. Now parents must submit their exemption to their licensed child care center every time an immunization is recommended on the regular schedule. Once children reach kindergarten, exemptions must be submitted annually.
- These changes provide parents with more accurate, up-to-date information on school/child care immunization rates so that they can make an informed decision about where to send their child.
HB 14-1288 helps to create healthier schools and communities. This is just one of the pro-health policies worth standing up for!