2,000 unvaccinated students may not be allowed back to class, Seattle Public Schools warns

Jordan Culver | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Not vaccinating now considered 'global health threat', WHO reports The World Health Organization says people who choose not to vaccinate has emerged as a global health threat for 2019.

Seattle Public Schools has informed parents that unvaccinated students will not be allowed to return to class after a January deadline and is making free clinics available to get students' immunization records up to date.

The district posted a notice Dec. 20 informing parents of the decision, citing Washington state law and the state's recently-passed bill that removes the "personal" and "philosophical" options to exempt children from the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.

Students have until Jan. 8 to get updated immunization records or they'll be excluded from attending school. Any students who miss days of school due to immunization requirements will have their absences recorded as unexcused.

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Seattle Public Schools is hosting free immunization clinics to get students ready ahead of the deadline. One was last week. The second is Monday. A third will take place Jan. 3. Students with Seattle Public Schools have been on winter break since Dec. 23 and return to school Jan. 6, according to the district's calendar.

A spokesperson with Seattle Public Schools told USA TODAY on Monday that over 2,000 students' records are out of compliance, a drop from the more than 7,000 who were out of compliance in September.

If a student is still out of compliance by the Jan. 8 deadline, they "will be received in a designated room at school, while school staff contacts the parents/guardians," the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The district is home to 53,627 students, the district's website reports.

“Unfortunately, by state law we have to exclude them,” district spokesman Tim Robinson told KOMO News in Seattle. “They would be excluded here, they would be excluded at any school district, and we certainly want to avoid that. I know all schools want to avoid it because you don’t want students to miss any school time.”

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According to Washington state law, it's "the duty of the chief administrator of every public and private school and day care center to prohibit" the presence of students who either don't have up-to-date immunization records or can't provide an approved immunization schedule or certificate of exemption.

In May, Washington's legislature passed a bill to remove the personal and philosophical options to exempt students from receiving the MMR vaccine – but kept in the religious and medical options. That bill, despite protests, became law in July.

The bill came about as a county within the state known for not vaccinating its children was dealing with a measles outbreak near the start of 2019, which led to officials declaring a public health emergency.