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Medical community seeks end of allowing parents to refuse vaccinations as measles threatens coming back, anti-vaccine movements grow
Most kindergartners in Southeast Tennessee schools last year got their required vaccinations by the time school was underway, Tennessee Department of Health data from the 2013-2014 school year shows.
But the data, which comes from both public and private schools, is more gray when it comes to students who are missing vaccine records. Out of 105 schools in Southeast Tennessee, 21 had more than 10 percent noncompliance in their kindergarten ranks.
At Orchard Knob Elementary, for example, 23 students — close to 30 percent of kindergartners — did not have the proper paperwork filed in the fall, when the state survey was collected. At Hillcrest Elementary School, about 28 percent were missing the paperwork, and at Falling Water Elementary, 26 percent did not meet requirements.
“A lot of those kids are actually vaccinated, they just don’t have a good paper trail,” said Sheryl Rogers, coordinator for health services at Hamilton County Schools.