Immunizations

Immunizations are the most effective means of preventing many serious communicable diseases. They are a key part of your child’s individual routine preventative health care, and they are absolutely necessary for maintaining a disease-free social environment for your child’s school attendance. Because of this, they are also the law—required for school attendance, for day care attendance, for before- and after-school program, etc.

Before your child may enter school anywhere in Kansas, you are required by state law (KAR 72-5208, 5209, 5210, 5211, 5211a) to provide the school with documentation of your child’s immunizations.  This immunization must be provided to the Wichita Public Schools on an official Kansas Certificate of Immunization (KCI) form, available from your neighborhood school or most health care providers, and presented to your school at the time of initial enrollment.

Additionally, after children start school, they will "age into" the need for additional immunizations. When this happens, the school will inform you in the spring of additional shots needed for fall enrollment. A complete list of Immunizations Required for the 2008 – 2009 school year are now available. Also available in Vietnamese and Spanish.

Documentation of your child’s immunizations must be placed on a KCI (originals are green) and signed by a licensed physician or health department representative. If you have official records of shots, take them to your physician’s office or the Health Department to have them transferred to a KCI.

There is no "grace period" at enrollment time. This form must be presented at that time. The exception is for families who have recently moved into the district from out of state. Fourteen days are allowed to obtain records.

If your child is in progress of completing his or her required vaccines, at least one of each required vaccine must have been received immediately preceding enrollment. In other words, they are awaiting the next available dose.

Exemptions

Legal alternatives are allowed as described on the reverse side of the KCI. They include:

1. A physician (M.D. or D.O.) annually verifies, documented by his or her signature on the back side of the KCI, that there are medical reasons to exempt individual vaccines. The expiration date, if it’s sooner than a year, should be listed, and should which vaccine is exempted.
2. A pupil is of a religion whose teachings are opposed to immunizations. This should be documented by parent signature on the back side of the KCI. The school reserves the right to require verification by the clergy of the religious tenets that preclude immunizations.

Important note regarding exemptions:

To protect the health your child and others, during suspected vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, any child claiming any of the above exemptions will be subject to automatic exclusion from school.

Helful Information