Penn State to crack down on required vaccinations

Kids and vaccinations. All those appointments and paperwork to make sure they can get to school.

It seems like a kindergarten thing, but it applies to college students, too. Or at least, it should. Penn State is making sure that they get more concrete information on vaccinations for their students.

In Pennsylvania, the College and University Student Vaccination Act became law in 2002. But despite requiring the MMR — that’s measles, mumps and rubella — for all students and meningococcal disease vaccine for anyone living in a residence hall, the process has been a bit lax.

“There was no protocol,” Penn State vice president of student affairs Damon Sims told a committee on Thursday.

Now the university is codifying the process to make sure they have the best data. Instead of just asking students if they have the vaccines, now they have to prove it.

“Students have to have a medical provider sign off,” Sims said.

That means lots more paperwork, and more people to deal with the paperwork.

The documents, expected to be about 20,000 more than before, with about 60,000 pages, will become part of the students’ electronic health records and reviewed by the health staff for completion and accuracy.

“We’ve had to add staff to help,” Sims said.

But with vaccinations being a hot button for babies and little kids, there are still the possibilities of people bristling at the idea.

Trustee Kay Salvino questioned how the university would deal with those who had religious or simply philosophical objections to the vaccines.

Sims said students can fill out a form verifying that status.

This story was originally published September 15, 2016 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Penn State to crack down on required vaccinations."