Immunization is again a hot topic after a string of measles outbreaks at Disneyland, in a Chicago day care and elsewhere. If your child is in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, there's only a very small chance the student sitting next to them hasn't been vaccinated against the disease.
State law requires public school students to show their immunization history before being allowed to attend class. But it allows two exemptions to the rule: for medical reasons, or for religious belief. North Carolina does not have a "personal belief" exemption.
A total of 617 students in CMS this year were not vaccinated under one of those two exemptions. That's less than one half of one percent of the more than 144,000 students in the district.
Religious exemptions accounted for 504 students. Medical exemptions made up the remaining 113.
CMS requires six vaccinations for children entering kindergarten. Most require several doses:
- Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis
- Polio
- Haemophilus influenzae type B
- Hepatitis B
- Measles, mumps and rubella
- Varicella
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26 comments:
Dunn
How about a story on the thousands of dollars teachers have lost with the reduction of their healthcare benefits (70/30) and the complete loss of dental and vision benefits.
Not a word from CMS or the State about the return these benefits. South Carolina and Virginia have taken a much better lead on the benefits/pay situation and the exodus continues to those states from our borders.
These are helpful statistics. There are likely a good number of the 617 students that have been partially immunized (including those who have a medical exemption due to a prior vaccine reaction). Partially-immunized students may have immunity for some or all of the conditions the immunizations are designed to protect against, vs. those students who have received no immunizations at all.
Job openings rose 181,000 in December to 5.03 million, the most since January 2001, from a revised 4.85 million the month before, the Labor Department reported Tuesday in Washington. The number of Americans hired advanced to a seven-year high.
The mass exodus of teachers has just begun. Combine this with the lack of supply and the crisis unfolds before our eyes.
What is your plan CLARK ? Where are you going to find the MONEY?
Yawn. Yawn.
I can already hear the Conservatives in Raleigh working to add a "personal beliefs" exception. That way the vaccination truthers can send their kids to school without the government telling them what to do.
9:30
Religious exemptions accounted for 504 students. Medical exemptions made up the remaining 113.
Isn't a religious belief a "personal belief"?
I guess a liberal who is supposed to believe in personal beliefs (freedom of expression) and opinion doesn't want that because if it isn't a personal belief sanctioned by liberals, then it's labeled invalid.
Yes, liberal thinking is that warped. We've seen Obama do it day in and day out. Mold it to fit a narrative.
Well, how do we know those vaccinations or immunization records are REAL?
I'm all for vaccinations and have always gotten them for myself and my children.
But it seems to me that some folks out there just don't care.
I mean, just think how many people get away with using fake documents in this country.
So why not fake immunization records?
A few recent stories come to mind.
One internationally:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-cia-fake-vaccination-campaign-endangers-us-all/
The other locally:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2015/02/06/5499056/charlotte-woman-charged-with-practicing.html
(If a dentist, then why not a doctor or someone else willing to fake records for a fee?)
And then, there are always people like this:
http://www.mothering.com/forum/443-i-m-not-vaccinating/1358483-how-fake-vaccination-record.html
"I am mostly against vaccination with a few exceptions. I live in MA where it is possible to get an exemption for school admission but I'd think it would be more durable to simply have a fake. I'd love to see examples and get tips."
"In my country of origin, I've had a doctor signing on for me without actually vaccinating but that will be harder here and I signed another one myself. It was very easy and worked, it's just a paper booklet. If a stamp is needed, it's easy to have one made over the internet for cheap."
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Nice to know these kinds of people are out there...
And too bad that we are so "trusting" of others who REALLY do not have all our best interests in mind.
Gee, the more I look into this, Thank Google, the worse it appears to be.
It seems that a lot of our immigrants (even the "legal" ones) don't care too much for our immunization rules.
As long as they're "documented", whether true or false, no one really seems to care or verify those documents, either.
This is apparently the current sorry state of affairs in this country.
So, in reality, we probably HAVE NO IDEA how many children are REALLY vaccinated in our schools.
Just which ones who might have a sheet of paper saying they were.
Big difference when the virus comes knocking at your door.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/225241-false-immunization-records/
"I have read that you need to have all sort of immunizations done in order to apply for the visa but also for the adjustment of status. My “problem” is, my parents were against vaccines, but as they are required for schools here to, they had a doctor friend who was unprofessional enough to record that I have had those vaccines. So on paper I am good, but in reality I am not.
....
In other words, if I don’t get the vaccines, can I get busted?
Thanks."
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And, apparently, based on the replies to this question, there are also doctors who will "sign" your immunization records through the mail.
Sounds like a nice little business to me...
But, hey, nothing to worry about folks, it's not as if people are actually scheming to bypass our laws, you know.
So we can just continue taking people at their word as we always have.
Just pretend that it's the 1950's again and we're all living in Beaver Cleaver Land.
Anon 9:30pm.
"I can already hear the Conservatives in Raleigh working to add a "personal beliefs" exception."
Well, those are just for the few folks in this country who actually care about following our laws.
An insignificant drop in the bucket compared to those who don't care and know they most likely won't get caught.
It's the "new" American Way.
All these illegal students put a burden on our teachers and healthcare system (emergency room).
Now what are you going to do parents when junior is sitting next to measles from Mexico?
What should be keeping the CMS Super up at night is how the school system is encouraging technology use and the irresponsible use of tech in our schools, even by our youngest learners. The teachers cannot adequately control or manage this use, and CMS administration covers up the problems of what is really happening on campus. It is irresponsible, a distraction from learning and not beneficial academically for most kids. And now MORE stories of porn in our CMS schools. What a surprise. Please stop telling our kids they have to bring phones, ipads, and the like to school to learn. What a copout.
There will be no teachers to hire in a few short years. That is why Clark and CMS want bring your own technology. They can hire lab managers for HALF the paltry salary of a first year teacher to manage it.
All the while Battle and the other "market adjusters" go up and up with their raises.
Funny no story on how BYOT failed at a south Charlotte middle school. But the, what another commenter has called the iPad principal still pushes technology on the youngest of learners.
To Anon 5:16
I blame the parents as much as the school. Why do they go out and buy their children these powerful devices, and then they don't put any filters or controls on them.
More problems ahead as we rely on technology to teach our children. Educational "Learning" software companies made $8 Billion dollars last year.
"Experts say they are symptomatic of widespread lapses in student data protection across the education technology sector. They warn that insecure learning sites, apps and messaging services could potentially expose students, many of them under 13, to hacking, identity theft, cyberbullying by their peers, or even unwanted contact from strangers. (Many of these sites and apps are being used by CMS schools.) The idea is to personalize lessons by amassing and analyzing reams of data about each student’s actions, tailoring academic material to individual learning levels and preferences.
But some privacy law scholars, educators and technologists contend that federal protections for student data have not kept pace with the scope and sophistication of classroom data-mining. Although a federal privacy law places some limits on how schools, and the vendors to which they outsource school functions, handle students’ official educational records, these experts say the protections do not extend to many of the free learning sites and apps that teachers download and use independently in their classrooms".
(article found in this week's NY Times)
What is your plan CLARK ? Where are you going to find the MONEY?
February 10, 2015 at 4:37 PM
Great Dunn
You follow up with a good story that did not ask any of the hard questions about finding the money!
Teenaged students don't care about digital citizenship, most particularly their privacy on-line. No matter how many forms CMS has them fill out, it will never matter. Hours on line using social Media is how most teens use their devices, not studying the universe or strands of DNA.
some of the comments remind me of a story my now 9th grade daughter told me last year. The students at her southcharlotte area middle school were all reading the "good" parts of 50 Shades of Gray during school on their I-pads and Kindles.I think it is impossible for the teachers to know what all the students are doing at all times in class.
All middle school students will have laptops.
They will be able to work on the same files at home? How? Do they take a data stick back and forth since they can't take the notebooks home?
Wiley, the students save a lot of their work in a version of Google Docs that lets them open the file from anywhere.
Andrew,
I get the "cloud", but what of the kids who have no technology at home, which has been reported time and time again?......
Wiley, No worries, most kids have technology at home. A recent report from Duke University noted that low income minority children are the biggest users of screens at home, to the detriment of actual learning. They spend more time playing video games and watching TV than their middle income peers.
oh good, more screens for the children(tongue in cheek). Most educators know that the much faster pace of screen content interferes with cognitive development, which is an underlying reason for the increasing cases of ADD/ADHD. When children become conditioned to "instant" answers, their attention spans are shortened, and they don't develop patience and don't truly learn on a deep level. The laptops are not the panacea CMS is promising.
Wiley, A bunch of technology won't be the magic bullet that makes students smarter. If they don't know how to read, do math and study, I can't imagine how a laptop will change any of that.
Teachers remain crucial to learning. Buzzwords like "personalized instruction" and "personalized learning" all sound great, particularly to a superintendent or principal worried about his reputation or missing the digital bandwagon, but there is zero data that suggests it's a better, more effective way to learn.
There are two types of digital learning: online and another called "blended learning," an approach that combines digital innovation with traditional teaching.
Multiple studies find that online- learning had no impact on student achievement and in some cases had a slightly negative impact. The results of blended learning were more mixed, but in cases where it improved student learning, it also costs more than traditional methods. The higher performing students remained the higher performing students in both cases.
We call them Generation Z - in a nutshell, they are independent, stubborn, pragmatic, superficial, and always in a rush.
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