LACK OF RESOURCES, EDUCATION LEAVES SOME MN SCHOOLS BEHIND ON VACCINATION REQUIREMENTS

By Becca Most
May 2019

Although Minnesota has a relatively high kindergarten vaccination rate (nearly 93 percent as of 2018), there are some schools scattered throughout the state that fall behind, averaging vaccination rates as low as 33 percent, according to data from the Minnesota Department of Health. With rampant misinformation about vaccines and a lack of resources for school nurses, some health experts worry unvaccinated children will put their communities at risk for outbreak.

Although the state average for kindergarten vaccination rates has only fallen about one percent between 2014-2017, according to the Minnesota Department of Health, Patsy Stinchfield said this decline is reminiscent of a greater health crisis.

“Vaccines to me are one of the best infection prevention measures that we have,” said Stinchfield, the senior director of infection, prevention and control at Children’s Hospital. “It’s not about religion, it’s not about belief, it is an evidence-based medical practice that’s probably [been studied more] than any other medical intervention that we’ve had.”

Stinchfield said the recent measles outbreak in 2017, which was the largest number of cases of the disease in Minnesota since it was eradicated in 2000, has her believe another outbreak is inevitable. With fewer people trusting the scientific process and modern medicine, she is worried that pockets of underimmunized communities will become the perfect spot for another epidemic, which could be deadly for people who are either too young to be immunized or are medically unable to.

On average, private and charter elementary schools tend to have lower vaccination rates than public schools, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. In Minnesota, state law prevents children who have not gotten the mandated vaccinations from going to public school. For private and charter schools, however, the law is a bit more flexible and often allows school administrators to set their own vaccination requirements.

Taryn Buckner is the school nurse of FIT Academy in Apple Valley, where only 51 percent of the 33 kindergartners are fully vaccinated, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. The MMR vaccine, which prevents measles, mumps and rubella, has the lowest vaccination rate out of all vaccines at FIT Academy. Buckner said this might be because of a wide-spread myth that MMR is related to autism, which although scientifically disproven, remains a constant concern for some parents.

Lack of resources, education leaves some MN schools behind in vaccination requirements: Project

Lack of resources, education leaves some MN schools behind in vaccination requirements: HTML Embed

Buckner said as the only nurse who oversees 300 students, it’s a challenge for her to keep parents up-to-date on their child’s vaccination requirements, especially when many are opposed to vaccines in general.

She said often times the school lacks the funding and manpower to check in with parents and educate them on the importance of vaccines. Buckner said she struggles balancing that part of her job with taking care of sick students that come to visit her every day.

“As it stands we just don’t have time with everything else that we’ve got to manage in schools ... to be dedicated to outreach and education for families who choose to not be immunized,” she said. “There’s a lot of other things that are pertinent to the moment [and] because I’m only just one person and that’s all I have time for.”

Ben Christianson, an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health, is in charge of analyzing and publishing kindergarten vaccination data for the state. When looking at data from the 2017-2018 school year, he found that school districts with a school nurse present had an average of 3 percentage points higher coverage for MMR vaccines compared to districts that didn’t have a nurse.

He also found that coverage for MMR was 10.4 percentage points lower in school districts with charter schools compared to public schools.

Beth Riley, a part-time school nurse at First Baptist School in Rosemount, said although she’s tried to follow up with parents who don’t comply with the state vaccination requirements, it’s difficult for nurses because there is only so much they can do. Riley said it can be frustrating because ultimately she does not have the power to stop children from coming to school if they aren’t vaccinated.

Riley said she thinks that private and charter schools have lower vaccination rates because these schools pride themselves on giving parents an alternative choice to the public schools, which can be especially appealing to parents who want less government regulation and more choice in their child’s education and health.

She said she wishes there was stricter vaccine requirements at the school, and believes the school’s officials don’t enforce as harsh as they should out of fear of angering or upsetting the families that chose to enroll there.

At First Baptist, only 58 percent of their 19 kindergartners are fully vaccinated, and 32 percent claim a non-medical exemption (meaning under state law parents can refuse a vaccine due to a religious or personal conviction). Throughout the state, the number of kindergarten non-medical exemptions has grown since the 2013-2014 school year, now at a little over 3 percent. Minnesota is one of 17 states that allow parents to refuse vaccines for personal reasons.

Lack of resources, education leaves some MN schools behind in vaccination requirements: Text

Lack of resources, education leaves some MN schools behind in vaccination requirements: HTML Embed

Riley said she has talked with many parents who fill out a non-medical exemption form because they are skeptical about the effectiveness of vaccines or its supposed link to autism. Other parents may do so simply because they don’t have the time to bring their child to the doctor. Riley said sometimes it can be easier to fill out the exemption form than get vaccinated.

She said people are disconnected from the ugly realities of some of these preventable diseases and don’t understand how essential it is to get vaccinated. There needs to be a huge push for re-education and why vaccines are safe and effective, Riley said.

The Children’s Hospital and the Minnesota Department of Health have worked hard to provide education workshops and community outreach task forces in an effort to educate families about vaccines and stop the spread of misinformation.

Stinchfield said some parents are ignorant about how dangerous diseases like polio and measles can be, and can be vulnerable because they recently moved here or don’t speak English very well. She has found that one-on-one interaction with skeptical parents proves to be the most effective way of changing their minds.

“At the end of the day if you have high vaccine rates and you’re doing everything well, nothing happens,” said Stinchfield. “You don’t have any outbreaks, you don’t have any news stories — and that’s what we want … and you have to be patient and take the long road.”