In Colorado, parents have been able to opt their children out of immunizations for nonmedical reasons with a single signature, leading to one of the highest rates of unvaccinated children nationally.
But now the Colorado Board of Health is asking parents to consider their decision to opt their children out of vaccines far more frequently.
“I do believe this is a step in the right direction, since parents that opt out have to reaffirm their decision on a regular basis,” said Vangi McCoy, the Montelores Early Childhood Council coordinator for Dolores and Montezuma counties. She testified at the statehouse in 2014.
The new rules were approved April 15 at the state level, but they will not go into effect until July 2016.
Parents will be required to turn in exemption forms to their child care center every time their young child would be required to get a vaccination.
After a child enters school, parents would be required to turn in an exemption form each year.
Schools also will have to submit data on immunization and exemption rates to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment each year.
This information will be available online so parents can check to see what percentage of children in an individual school have not been immunized.
In the 2013-14 school year across Colorado 4.6 percent of kindergartners, or about 3,000, had an exemption for one or more of the required immunizations, she said.
The coalition and other advocates had supported a version of the bill that would have required parents to take an online module or provide proof of speaking with a health-care professional before opting their children out of a vaccine.
While the change in vaccination laws are not as stringent as the one originally proposed, advocates are hopeful the frequent exemptions may encourage parents to at least reconsider getting their child vaccinated, especially during high-profile outbreaks of infectious diseases, McCoy said.
Vaccination exemptions
Here is the percentage of students exempted from vaccinations in Durango School District 9-R by school. The figure listed after the school is the percentage of students exempted from vaccinations:
Durango High School, 7 percent.
Big Picture High school, 7 percent.
Escalante Middle School, 15.6 percent.
Florida Mesa Elementary, 8.9 percent.
Miller Middle School, 11 percent.
Needham Elementary, 0 percent.
Park Elementary, 10 percent.
Riverview Elementary, 14.6 percent.
Sunnyside Elementary, 10 percent.
Animas Valley Elementary, 11 percent.
Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary, 9 percent.
Source: Durango School District 9-R
