04:21:00 Vaccinations

Purpose

To document Walters State’s vaccination requirements for applicants and current students.

Policy

1. General

1. Immunization Rules

1.  Each college shall ask all applicants for admission to provide health information that establishes the applicant’s compliance with the recommended immunization schedule for measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella for adults, issued by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

(a) Proof of prior or current military service shall be considered proof of the recommended immunizations.

(b) Students with proof of graduation from a Tennessee high school after 2014 shall not be required to submit evidence of the recommended immunizations, except as specified below.

(c) Students enrolling in a course of study that is exclusively online and does not involve any experiential component shall not be asked to provide immunization information.

2.   Except as otherwise required for specific programs of study, failure to provide documentation of recommended immunization shall not be a bar to admission, however, should the college experience an outbreak of a communicable disease, all students without documented immunization for the disease shall be presumed to be un-immunized and subject to immunization, quarantine or isolation recommendations for the purposes of public health disease control.

3.  Notwithstanding the forgoing, any applicant to a program that involves interaction with children, such as a teacher education or early childhood education training program, must present proof of compliance with the recommended 2-dose immunization schedule for mumps, rubella, and varicella for adults, issued by the CDC-ACIP.

4.  Notwithstanding the foregoing, any applicant enrolling in a school of nursing, laboratory technology, or any other allied health profession must present proof of compliance with the immunization schedule for healthcare personnel issued by the CDC-ACIP.

2. Information Provided to Students

1. Each college shall provide each new incoming student with detailed information concerning the risk factors for hepatitis B infection and the availability and effectiveness of vaccine for persons who are at risk of the disease.

2.  Each college shall provide each new incoming student with detailed information concerning the recommended immunization schedule for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella for adults issued by the Center for Disease Control Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the availability and effectiveness of the recommended vaccines.

3.   Each new incoming student shall return a completed health history form indicating that the college has provided the information required in this section.

2. Exemptions allowable by Law
   
   A student may be exempted from the requirements of this section only under the following circumstances:

1. Where a physician licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners, the Board of Osteopathic Examiners or a Health Department certifies in writing that a particular vaccine is contraindicated for one (1) of the following reasons:

1. The individual meets the criteria for contraindication set forth in the manufacturer’s vaccine package insert; or
2. The individual meets the criteria for contraindication published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (CDC- ACIP);     
3. In the best professional judgment of the physician, based upon the individual’s medical condition and history, the risk of harm from the vaccine outweighs the potential benefit.
   
   An individual who has been exempted from a particular vaccination must comply with immunization requirements for any vaccines from which he/she has not been exempted.

B. Where a parent or guardian, or in the case of an adult student, the student, provides to the school a written statement, affirmed under penalties of perjury, that vaccination conflicts with the religious tenets and practices of the parent or guardian, or in the case of an adult student, the student.

07/11; 05/16; 04/21; 08/22