A new school year means lots of things: learning new subjects, making new friends and, for kids heading off to kindergarten, updating immunizations.

South Dakota law requires students beginning kindergarten or early

childhood programs to be "adequately immunized" before they attend classes, according to the South Dakota Department of Health.

South Dakota law allows for some

exemptions for childhood vaccines. If a child's physical health would be endangered by immunization, the child may be exempted.

Also, a written statement from a parent or guardian saying that the child's religious doctrine opposes immunizations may exempt them.

In South Dakota, 95 percent of

parents adhere to the immunization

requirement, giving the state a high compliancy rate compared with other states, said Tim Heath, program coordinator for immunizations at the Department of Health.

Heath said he does not have statistics on the number of parents who apply to exempt their children. Most of those cases are handled by individual school districts.

Minimum immunization requirements for kindergartners are:

• Four or more doses of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus containing
• vaccine, with at least one dose administered on or after age 4.
• Three or more doses of poliovirus vaccine, at least one dose on or after age 4; or four or more doses of any combination of OPV/IPV given by 4 years of age.
• At least two doses of a measles-containing vaccine separated by at least 28 days, on or after a child's first birthday. The second dose is usually given as a measles/mumps/rubella vaccination.
• At least two doses of a rubella-containing vaccine, separated by at least 28 days, on or after a child's first birthday.
• At least two doses of a mumps-containing vaccine, separated by at least 28 days, on or after the first birthday.
• Beginning in August 2007, the state of South Dakota began requiring two doses of chicken pox vaccine administered after the age of 12 months.

The Department of Health recommends but doesn't require Haemo-philus influenzae B, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and pneumococcal vaccines. The meningitis vaccine also is recommended but not required for children ages 11 and older.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, but doesn't require, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, for girls ages 11 and older.

Linda Poppens Boland, health services coordinator for Rapid City Area Schools, said parents are given

immunization reminders at kindergarten registration in the spring.

Still, a fairly high

number fail to meet the immunization requirements by the start of school.

"There is a high percent of people who forget," she said.

In those cases, students are kept out of school until their shots are up to date.

To prevent that delay, it's best for parents to be proactive, health experts say.

They still can use the remaining days of summer to ensure their child is fully prepared for school in every way.

Contact Lynn Taylor Rick at lynn.taylor rick@rapidcityjournal.com or 394-8414.

Childhood immunizations

For more information about childhood immunizations, call the South Dakota Department of Health, Immunization Program at 800-592-1861 (in South Dakota only), or go to http://doh.sd.gov/ Immunize/School.aspx