Petaluma schools brace for vaccine requirements

Leaders at Petaluma-area schools are gearing up to answer parent questions in the wake of a new vaccination mandate in California, legislation that will soon eliminate the option to obtain an exemption based on personal or religious beliefs for students in both public and private schools.

As the first day of instruction looms for the majority of the city’s schools, efforts are underway to train staff and provide resources for parents before the new law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2016.

While the law faced statewide resistance from a contingent of parents representing a diversity of views in opposition of the vaccination mandate, voices from the academic community said they were largely staying out of the ongoing debate while focusing on educating parents in light of the new requirements from the state.

“I think we’re really trying to make sure our parents have a good understanding of the law” said Gary Callahan, superintendent of the city’s largest district, Petaluma City Schools. “We’re not getting involved in the debate. That’s not our forte. This is a public health issue, and one that the state has directed us to comply with.”

Signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in June, Senate Bill 277 gives California some of the strictest vaccination requirements in the nation. The rules completely eliminate the ability to obtain a personal belief or religious exemption, ratcheting up from a change last year that required parents to speak to a physician before a waiver would be granted.

Only two other states, Mississippi and West Virginia, forbid parents from receiving an exemption on religious grounds.

Several of California’s wealthiest and best-educated communities, include a number of those in the North Bay, have shown to have some of the lowest child vaccination rates in the state. While 2.5 percent of the California’s kindergarten students were enrolled with a personal belief exemption during the 2014-2015 school year, those rates averaged 6 percent in Petaluma and 5.5 percent for Sonoma County as a whole, according to information from the California Department of Public Health.

At seventh grade, the next age when vaccine compliance is assessed for enrollment purposes, 3.4 percent of Petaluma students enrolled with a personal belief exemption last year. Sonoma County had a rate of nearly 3 percent, compared to the state average of 2.1 percent.

In total, more than 26,500 students in California attended school on a personal or religious belief exemption last year.

Public health officials say a 90 percent vaccination rate is needed to provide a so-called “herd immunity,” where a potentially deadly or debilitating disease has a hard time spreading. Widespread vaccination is said to protect those with medical conditions that make it impossible to be vaccinated themselves, along with those who have chosen to avoid vaccination based on personal beliefs.

Less than 85 percent of kindergarten students in Petaluma were fully up-to-date on required vaccines when enrolled for the 2014-15 school year, but that number rises to 93.9 percent if including students with plans to complete their requirements.

Yet the situation can vary widely at individual schools. At Live Oak Charter School, 74 percent of kindergarten students were not considered up-to-date on their vaccination regimen when enrolling for the 2014-2015 school year, according to the state data. More than two-thirds of children enrolled with a personal belief exemption.

Matthew Morgan, the school’s executive director, cautioned that the state numbers scratch the surface of what can often be a huge variety of nuanced beliefs. Some parents may intend to fully vaccinate their children, for example, but have historically obtained a personal belief exemption in order to do so over a different schedule than the one presented by the state.

One certainty, though, is that his school and others are preparing to educate parents about the new rules, including some with strong beliefs that run contrary to those of the state.

“For people who have very strong convictions, they will be thinking about all of these issues,” he said. “Whenever there is a change, the education piece is very important.”

Among the most widely discussed vaccines required by the state is the measles, mumps and rubella or MMR immunization. While a British physician’s 1998 paper linking the vaccine to autism has been widely discredited - including a retraction by the journal that published his work - the controversy continues to inspire some to stop short of the MMR vaccine or avoid vaccination for their children altogether.

The issue was thrust into the limelight once again after the measles outbreak that started at Disneyland in December. There were more than 100 confirmed cases in at least seven U.S. states, all instances that could have been prevented with vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Petaluma, 87 percent of students enrolling in kindergarten entered school with the MMR vaccine last year, according to state data.

Personal belief exemptions will no longer be allowed for the school year that begins in 2016, though exemptions due to medical conditions will still be allowed with a physician’s approval.

Parents with children enrolling in kindergarten or seventh grade after 2016 will be required to show that their child is fully up-to-date on vaccination per the state requirements. Students enrolling in eighth grade or later at that time and not changing schools will be grandfathered in to any previously granted exemptions, and home-schooled students will be unaffected.

Callahan, the Petaluma City Schools superintendent, said the district will be targeting new parents and those with children enrolling in kindergarten or seventh grade as they educate them about the new rules.

“The most important piece for us is to be able to provide accurate and timely information,” he said.