As the school year begins to wrap up and families start to make their summer plans, parents of rising kindergartners and seventh graders should allot time to get their students immunized. New state requirements go into effect starting next school year for those two groups of students.

Effective July 1, 2015, kindergartners will be required to get a Polio booster vaccine and have two doses of the Varicella (chicken pox) vaccine in addition to immunizations already required. Seventh-grade students will need to get a Tdap vaccine as well as the Meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV).

Most rising seventh-graders will have already received the Tdap vaccine, because it was a requirement this year sixth grade students. Starting in 2015-16, sixth-graders will not need the vaccine, only seventh-grade students. If students did receive the vaccine as a sixth-grade, they do not need to get it again.

GCS is legally required to exclude students who do not have documentation showing they received the required vaccinations within 30 calendar days of the first day of school (Aug. 24, 2015 for schools on the traditional calendar). To avoid any missed class time, the Department of Health and Human Services – Public Health Division is offering special vaccination clinics for students.

Clinics will be held at the Greensboro (1100 E. Wendover Ave.) and High Point (501 E. Green Dr.) locations.

Parents will need to schedule an appointment for their child by calling (336) 641-3245. Students may also receive the vaccinations from their family physician.