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Spokane Students Vaccinated, Exempt, or Sent Home

Vaccine shot
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, via Flickr
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US Army Corps of Engineers

More students are complying with state law in the Spokane school district when it comes to immunizations. Washington state law says before a child can attend school , parents need to provide proof of immunization status, or have signed a certificate of exemption form.

The Spokane school district started enforcing that rule in earnest this week.
District spokesman Kevin Morrison says a number of students were sent home on Monday, for at least one classroom period.

Morrison: “We had a total of 143 students who had the special code that was put in for the emergency expulsions for at least one of those periods.”

About 100 students took advantage of free immunizations offered Monday. Morrison says they began to notify parents of the requirements 7 weeks ago, when they determined as many as six percent of the students in the district were out of compliance.

He says it will be later in the week before they can determine the number of students whose parents have signed a waiver to allow their kids to skip immunization, based on philosophical, religious or medical grounds.

Steve was part of the Spokane Public Radio family for many years before he came on air in 1999. His wife, Laurie, produced Radio Ethiopia in the late 1980s through the '90s, and Steve used to “lurk in the shadowy world” of Weekend SPR. Steve has done various on air shifts at the station, including nearly 15 years as the local Morning Edition host. Currently, he is the voice of local weather and news during All Things Considerd, writing, editing, producing and/or delivering newscasts and features for both KPBX and KSFC. Aside from SPR, Steve ,who lives in the country, enjoys gardening, chickens, playing and listening to music, astronomy, photography, sports cars and camping.
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