Only two students had incomplete vaccinations as of Monday

By Michelle Steinhebel, Lebanon Express writer

A total of 44 Lebanon students were excluded from school on Feb. 18 due to incomplete vaccinations.

Seven Oak Middle School excluded 15 students, nine from Lebanon High School, six from Cascades Elementary, seven from Hamilton Creek, five from Lacomb and two from Green Acres. No students were excluded from Pioneer or Riverview schools, where all children had current vaccinations before the deadline.

On Feb. 23, only two students in the district were excluded from school due to incomplete vaccinations - one at Green Acres and another at Cascade Elementary.

Karyn Walker, immunization coordinator for Linn County, vaccinated 17 Lebanon students on Thursday at the Linn County Health Department office in Lebanon. Parents also took their children to their primary physician to get the required shots.

New requirements led to more students being excluded this year.

"It's higher this year because we have the new Tdap requirement for seventh-graders and the Hepatitis A requirement for kindergartners," Walker said.

Tracy Owen, head nurse for the Lebanon Community School District, said most students lacking vaccinations were seventh graders and kindergartners.

"As a nurse I feel it's worth it to get vaccinated from a health perspective," she added.

Owen said fliers were sent home last spring, alerting parents of the vaccination requirements. She said that Walker visited schools with sixth-graders and vaccinated them for free last year, as long as they had parental consent.

"Most of the office managers had spoken to the parents prior to the deadline and parents were aware their kids wouldn't be able to attend school until the documentation was there. That's state law and we have to follow it," Owen said.

Children can attend school and not be vaccinated only under two conditions: They have a religious exemption or there is a medical reason they can not be vaccinated.

"Some kids can't receive live vaccines or have had a previous reaction to a vaccine," Owen explained.

Lebanon High School ran into some problems with vaccinations, but not because students weren't vaccinated. About two months ago, Lebanon High School's health room started using a new computer software that allowed them to track vaccinations easier.

However, the previous software didn't distinguish between students who had the varicella vaccine (chicken pox) and those who had had the chicken pox in the past, meaning LHS health staff had to go through 880 cases and track down the information.

"We went back through 880 student records to hand check and physically look at the records. We had to call parents and doctors to get the information to enter into the program," explained Lori Henderson, LHS health room secretary. "That is a one-time thing we had to do, and now it's all in the new system."

Henderson said that all students at the high school now have up-to-date vaccination records.