Free Tdap Boosters Now Available Every Weekday at Garden Grove Clinic

As summer recess draws to an end, the Garden Grove Unified School District reminds parents to begin thinking about their child’s back-to-school health care needs. With fall classes in the district beginning Thursday, Sept. 8, eligible GGUSD students can get a healthier start on the new school year by visiting the district’s free immunization clinic opening later this month.

Required immunizations will be provided without charge to eligible GGUSD students weekdays from Aug. 22 through Sept. 9, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., at the district Assessment and Registration Center clinic next to Cook Elementary School, 9802 Woodbury Rd., Garden Grove. The clinic will be closed Monday, Sept. 5.

Following the start of the new school year, the health clinic resumes its regular operating schedule beginning Sept. 12 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.

"The clinic is provided as a convenience for parents to help them satisfy admission requirements for their children attending the school district," said Gary Lewis, assistant superintendent of special education and student services. "It is extremely important for every child to receive all the necessary shots to ensure good health. Immunizations keep children free of certain diseases while also protecting other children and adults around them."

The parent or guardian must accompany the student for immunizations at the clinic, and they are required to provide written documentation of any previous immunizations administered by a physician or health care agency.

Families with insurance or enrolled in the Healthy Families Program should go to their health care provider. School immunizations may also be secured from private medical providers and at clinics operated by the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Before children can be legally enrolled in school, California law also requires they receive the following immunizations:

• The MMR series: red measles (rubeola), mumps, German measles (rubella)
• The DTaP series: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis); polio; Hepatitis B; and chicken pox (varicella). 

The requirement for the chicken pox immunization may be waived if a health care provider documents immunity. Contact the local school for specific immunization dosage requirements.

The district also reminds parents of a new state law requiring all incoming seventh through 12th graders to receive a whooping cough booster shot, called "Tdap," before entering school in September.

Students who have not received this booster shot before the start of the 2011-12 school year will be granted a 30-calendar-day grace period until Friday, Oct. 7. Parents, however, are strongly encouraged to have their children get the Tdap booster before the start of school on September 8. Beginning with the 2012-13 school year, only seventh-grade students will be required to prove they have been given the booster.

This new mandate includes current students, new students and transfer students in both public and private schools.

Children, in addition, are required by state law to receive a full physical exam, which includes a tuberculosis skin test, within 18 months of entering first grade. Parents should arrange for this checkup with their pediatrician, at which time the child must obtain the TB test and update any required immunizations. To satisfy first-grade admission requirements, the physical must not have been completed earlier than March 1 of this year. All required forms are available from the school office.

Along with the immunization and medical exam requirements, all children must receive an oral health assessment—a dental checkup—by May 31 in either kindergarten or first grade, whichever is his or her first year in public school. Oral health assessments administered up to 12 months before a child enters school also satisfy this requirement. A licensed dentist or other licensed or registered dental health professional must perform the assessment.