Over 560 Seattle students without vaccination records kept out of school

A Jan. 8, 2020 deadline for Seattle students to provide updated immunization records has arrived, with over 560 students out of compliance, according to a report from The Seattle Times.

Many students out of compliance with new state vaccine law

Washington state lawmakers voted in 2018 to get rid of the “personal” or “philosophical” exemption for the MMR vaccine after two measles outbreaks sickened 87 people and sent the state into a state of emergency.

The Seattle School District has been notifying families of students whose records are not up to date or are missing for weeks, as part of Washington state’s new vaccine compliance laws.

In late December, thousands of families received those notifications. As of Tuesday at 4 p.m., that number was down to just under 800. By 10 a.m. Wednesday, 565 students didn’t have proper paperwork. Those who showed up to school without their immunization records were put in a supervised room while parents were notified to pick them up.

Those students will be charged with an unexcused absence for every day their records aren’t up to date. Once the records are updated and the student returns to class, the absence will be changed to excused.

How Washington schools are stealing your children’s dreams

According to state law, school districts were supposed to start excluding students out of compliance 30 days after school started this fall. A KIRO 7 investigation from October found that schools and districts varied widely when it comes to following that law because there is no one to enforce it.

KIRO 7 staff contributed to this report

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