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California Healthcare Providers
Are you ready to help your patients
meet the new 7th through 12th Grade
Tdap Requirement?
As of July 1, 2011, under State law, all California students entering 7th through 12th grades must be immunized with the Tdap booster. The CMA Foundation’s goal is to help reach the 3 million children who need to be vaccinated as they head back to school in Aug/Sept. 2011.
Under a new state law, SB 614, schools have the option of allowing students in the 7th through 12th grades to conditionally attend classes for up to 30 calendar days after their first day of the 2011-2012 school year before meeting their requirement for a whooping cough booster (‘Tdap’). This option for conditional attendance will assist schools that need additional time to gather records on their students, but, as pertussis continues to occur at high levels in California, unimmunized adolescents remain at risk of becoming ill, missing school and spreading pertussis to their fellow students, households and communities.
We urge schools, health care providers, and the public to continue their efforts to protect students against pertussis this summer.
The Shots for School website, administered by the California Department of Public Health, recommends the following action steps, as part of its Provider Readiness Checklist, to make sure you are prepared to help your patients meet the new Tdap requirement.
- Repeatedly assess which adolescent patients have already received Tdap and which still need Tdap.
- Repeatedly remind patients by mail, telephone, emails and clinic displays.
- Ensure that your clinic has adequate supplies of vaccines.
- Immunize now at every adolescent visit – the incidence of pertussis is highest in summer through fall.
- Provide clear documentation of Tdap immunization to patients and their schools.
- Use VFC-supplied vaccines on VFC-eligible patients only.
For more information on these and other tips for health care providers, visit the Shots for School website, Provider Info page at: click here to view/download the materials. If you would like to order FREE copies of these patient education materials, please contact < ahref="mailto:lbarron@thecmafoundation.org>Leslie Barron or 916.779.6630.
To further assist providers, the CMA Foundation is also providing FREE patient education materials to help promote the 2011-2012 Tdap (pertussis) school mandate.
The California Medical Association Foundation’s Cervical Cancer/HPV Project has launched a campaign that promotes awareness about California’s new whooping cough vaccine requirement for 7th through 12th graders.
To help health care providers educate patients about the new vaccination requirement, the Foundation has published a number of patient education materials, including a 7th – 12th grade immunization chart, a table tent, and reminder postcard. All of these materials are available in English and Spanish.
The CMA Foundation also encourages health care providers to talk with parents about all of the recommended adolescent vaccines available (HPV, chickenpox, seasonal flu and meningococcal) when administering the required Tdap shot.
PDFs of Tdap mandate patient education materials are now available on the CMA Foundation’s Cervical Cancer/HPV Project web page click here to view/download the materials. If you would like to order FREE copies of these patient education materials, please contact < ahref="mailto:lbarron@thecmafoundation.org>Leslie Barron or 916.779.6630.
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