About This Lesson
During the pandemic, more than one in five students has fallen behind on routine, lifesaving vaccinations, such as MMR, TDap, hepatitis and meningitis. Without these shots, students may not be able to return to in-person learning in schools.
Chelsea Prax, and assistant director in the education policy & practice department at AFT and an expert on children’s health, notes that getting caught up on life-saving vaccines will help eliminate one source of stress for families after a chaotic year.
“There are many ways educators can think about spreading evidence-based and solutions-oriented messages,” she says in the latest podcast for the Learning First Alliance. These include brief notes home and backpack mail; conversations; “did you know” lines in e-newsletters; and longer dialogues in parent-teacher conferences.
If a family does not have health insurance or cannot afford a vaccine, the CDC’s Vaccines for Children program gives free vaccinations through state agencies and local health clinics. Learn more about this issue and how you can help through LFA’s new program, The Power to Protect, and website: www.getvaxfacts.org.
