Schools

Vaccines Needed Heading Back-to-School: Is Your Student Ready?

Is your child vaccine ready to head back to school? Check out these Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services requirements, or see if you are exempt.

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Candace Jarrett, Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge

While shopping for backpacks, notebooks and pencils, don’t forget to send your child to school with this essential school supply: immunization shots.

The state of Missouri requires K-12 students to be immunized from several illnesses. You can call it the most important school supply because for the most part, children can't attend school or child care without them. 

Those vaccines include:

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  • Diphtheria
  • Pertussis (whooping cough)
  • Tetanus
  • Polio
  • Measles
  • Mumps
  • Rubella
  • Varicella (chickenpox)
  • Hepatitis B

Children younger than 5 years-old in child-care programs are required to have vaccines for Hib and Pneumococcal Conjugate (PVC), in addition to the vaccines for K-12 students.

According to the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS):

  • All students must present documentation of up-to-date immunization status, including month, day, and year of each immunization before attending school.

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  • The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices allows a 4-day grace period. Students in all grade levels may receive immunizations up to four days before the due date.

  • For children beginning kindergarten after the 2003-04 school year, required immunizations should be administered according to the current Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Schedule, including all spacing, (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/index.html).

  • To remain in school, students "in progress" must have an Immunization In Progress form, which includes the appointment date for needed immunizations, on file and must receive immunizations as soon as they become due. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/index.html
    • Tdap, which contains pertussis vaccine, is required for students enrolled in the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh grade who have completed the recommended childhood DTaP/DTP vaccination series. If a student received a Tdap booster the student is up-to-date. Tdap is currently licensed for one dose only; an additional dose is not needed.
    Religious and medical exemptions are allowed. The appropriate exemption card must be on file, according to DHSS. Unimmunized children are subject to exclusion from school when outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases occur.

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