Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007
Prince George’s County parents whose children are not vaccinated against chickenpox and hepatitis B could soon face fines and possible jail time, county officials said Tuesday.
More than 1,600 county students and their parents are expected to come to Prince George’s Circuit Court in Upper Marlboro throughout the day Saturday, where free vaccinations will be available to students who are out of compliance with a 2005 state law requiring the immunizations.
‘‘It has come to the point where you have to say, ‘We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, but it has to be done,’” Prince George’s State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said at a news conference at the Circuit Court Tuesday afternoon. ‘‘The goal is to get kids back in school, not parents in jail.”
There are more than 2,300 unvaccinated county students, many of whom have missed several weeks of school. The 1,671 who are summoned to the court this week have been barred from class the longest, officials said. A similar event could be scheduled for later this school year, but officials said taking this action could spur other parents to make appointments.
‘‘When parents see we’re taking the level of action, hopefully it will encourage them to [take students for vaccine shots],” said John White, spokesman for the school system.
Parents who do not show up will be ordered to make a court appearance, and those who ignore the court’s demands could face a $50 fine for every day their child is out of compliance or up to 10 days in jail, Ivey said.
Board of Education chairman Owen Johnson said he hopes parents heed the county’s warning after almost two years of vaccine notices sent out by the school system.
‘‘The goal here is not to be punitive,” Johnson said. ‘‘But I am saddened by the fact that parents haven’t found it necessary [to make appointments] for whatever reason.”
The county school system has struggled for nearly a year to ensure students in kindergarten through the 10th grade get immunized against hepatitis B and chickenpox, a requirement in Maryland as of January.
The first deadline for Maryland students to have the immunizations was Jan. 2. More than 12,000 students across the state failed to meet that deadline; 4,000 of those students were from Prince George’s County schools.
When the 2006-2007 school year ended in June, about 1,000 Prince George’s students still were not in compliance.
For the 2007-2008 school year, Maryland students were required to have proof of immunization by Aug. 20. In September, schools officials announced that more than 3,000 students – about 1 percent of the county student population – were still not compliance with the state vaccination law. Those students were barred from school until they presented proof they had received the proper shots.
White said the numbers increased since the spring because students new to the school system had not received both shots or had missed appointments at free immunization clinics over the summer. Schools officials suspected some students who had received the vaccines, but their parents had yet to submit documentation notifying the school.
Free immunizations have been offered by the Prince George’s County Health Department in Cheverly since June. In September, the school system announced five opportunities for students to be transported during the school day to immunization clinics in the county. Schools officials have also sent school personnel door-to-door, hoping to persuade parents to bring their children to the county’s free clinics.
Betty Despenza-Green, the county’s chief of student services, said parents’ unresponsiveness has forced the school system’s hand and begun a dialogue between schools officials and the court system.
‘‘This has really ... been a difficult time for us,” she said. ‘‘We felt we needed to become very, very creative.”
E-mail Dennis Carter at dcarter@gazette.net.
