What White Lake-Highland Parents Need to Know About Vaccine Waivers

Parents who want an immunization waiver before their kids can begin school next month must attend an educational session at their county health department under new rules that take effect in Michigan this school year.

The new rule applies to children who are entering a licensed day care, a preschool, Head Start program, kindergarten, seventh grade or enrolling in a new school district.

The new rules are designed to boost immunization compliance and to make it harder for parents to opt out. Before the rule change, parents simply signed the waiver.

Michigan has the fourth-highest immunization waiver rate in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In some counties, more than 20 percent of students don’t get vaccinations against once all-but-wiped out childhood diseases, and the rate is even higher in some district buildings, officials with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The 20- to 30-minute educational sessions may be just a formality that’s having little effect on immunization compliance, according to a Michigan Radio report.

So far, about 1,800 waivers in Oakland County and 1,200 in Macomb County have been granted.

“We tell them that if you don’t get this vaccination, your child not only remains at risk, they’re putting other kids at risk, and if there is a breakout at school your kids could be excluded [from school], possibly for weeks,” Dr. Kevin Lokar, medical director of the Macomb County Health Department, told Michigan Radio.

Here are some of the talking points the state health department suggests for providers:

Some of those read:

• “Objection to vaccine for religious reasons may be masking the parent’s or guardian’s real question regarding safety, which is not a true religious objection. This would be a philosophical objection. However, understanding and acceptance may need to occur in regards to a person’s religious beliefs.”
• “A religion may not necessarily be opposed to vaccines (or western medicine), but the person’s religious views are real to them. Each person has the right to practice their beliefs and choose the form of health care they want.”
• “The key to this conversation is to respect their religious views while informing them of your concerns about vaccine-preventable diseases (the risk of disease and benefit of vaccinations). You may want to add in some vaccine-preventable disease stories.”

Lokar said the educational sessions don’t seem to be changing many minds in his county.

“The parents who are making these waiver appointments are very committed [to getting those waivers.] I’m not aware of any changing minds,” he told Michigan Radio.

In Oakland County, though, about a third of parents who have gone through the sessions say they plan to follow up with the local health department or private physicians.

Shane Bies, the public health nursing services administrator of the Oakland County Health Division, told Michigan Radio that many of the parents he has talked to aren’t so much anti-immunization as they are “vaccination hesitant.”

Lokar said health officials in Macomb County hope to reduce the 3,000 vaccination waivers last year by about half. But with the start of school almost two weeks away, the county has already processed more than 1,235 waivers.

In Oakland County, 4,000 waivers were filed through school districts last year.

In 2013, vaccine waivers were granted to 5.9 percent of school children entering Michigan kindergartens. The highest waiver rate – 19.5 percent – was in Leelanau County, and the lowest was in Keweenaw County, where no parent asked for a waiver, according to the Detroit Free Press.

In Metro Detroit, the rates were 6.9 percent in Macomb County, 10.1 percent in Oakland County, 7.2 percent in Washtenaw County and 7.1 percent in Wayne County. The rate for the city of Detroit was 2.3 percent.

For information about immunization education sessions and general immunization information in your county, click one of the following links:

• Oakland County
• Macomb County
• Wayne County
• Livingston County
• Washtenaw County
• Genesee County

Here are more resources from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services:

• Immunization Waiver Information
• Recommendations: When Do Children and Teens Need Vaccinations?
• Parent’s Guide to Preteen and Teen HPV Vaccination
• Required Childhood Immunizations for Michigan Schools
• Required Immunizations for Michigan Childcares/Preschools
• Change from 6th to 7th Grade Immunization Assessment in 2014
  

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention photo