Kids going back to school this fall may first need to visit the doctor’s office to comply with new immunization requirements.
Students in kindergarten through twelfth grade need to have two shots for chickenpox vaccine.
Middle school and high school students are required to have a pertussis booster.
The 2015 Montana Legislature revised school immunization requirements for school attendance effective this October first.
Montana Communicable Disease Bureau Chief Jim Murphy says Montana has long lagged behind the nation in shots required grade school students.
"We were basically the last of the 50 states to require varicella or chickenpox vaccine and we were one of five, when the session was here, we were one of five that didn’t require the pertussis booster for the older kids."
Murphy says the legislature made these requirements a priority after several outbreak years of pertussis, or whooping cough.
"Montana over the past few years has been either the top state, with respect to pertussis cases or in the top three for several years running. So, nothing to brag about."
Chickenpox statistics aren’t nationally recorded but Murphy says when he looked around at neighboring states, Montana had a much higher rate of kids catching the disease.
The law does allow for medical and religions exemptions to the vaccines.
Visit Montana DPHHS for more information on the new immunization requirements for students.
