In Sacramento this week, “scores” of students were sent home on the first day of school when they failed to provide proof of vaccination.

According to The Sacramento Bee, 145 children in the Folsom Cordova Unified School District were sent home for lack of immunization records, as a result of the new state law which took effect in July 1, eliminating personal/religious belief exemptions for vaccines.

The new law mandates that students entering the two “checkpoint years” of kindergarten and seventh grade must now provide full vaccination records.

District spokesman Daniel Thigpen said the district was hoping that the students sent home on Tuesday – 72 children from kindergarten and 73 from seventh grade – will go through with their shots and return to class this week. The SacBee reports that as of this Friday, 98 students remained out of class – 37 in kindergarten and 61 in seventh grade.

From the Sacramento Bee:

By the start of school, the district had identified 157 students who were unvaccinated out of 1,462 kindergarteners and seventh-graders, he said. On that day, 103 unvaccinated students arrived at school, Sanders said. He said their parents either returned that day with the proper paperwork or took their children to one of the district’s two clinics – a stationary clinic at Natomas High School or a mobile clinic at a middle school.

When it comes to vaccinations, pediatricians agree: there is no better way to protect your child from preventable diseases #WhyIVax #NIAM16 — Amer Acad Pediatrics (@AmerAcadPeds) August 9, 2016

Since then, Sanders said, the district has been working to reach the 54 students to see if they need help. Some turned out to have transferred to other districts.

Vaccinations have been required in California schools since 1962. But in the wake of a measles outbreak last year, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that eliminated the personal and religious belief exemptions that anti-vaxxers often used to get around the mandate.

Featured image: edsource.org