Camden School Officials Encourage Parents to Get Preschoolers Flu Shots

The Camden City School District offered free flu shots for children ages 3 or 4 on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at the Early Childhood Development Academy. Credits: George Woolston

CAMDEN, NJ—  As the end of the year inches closer, Camden City School District officials are encouraging parents of its preschool students to make sure that their children receive a flu shot before the new year.

On Tuesday, the school district’s department of early childhood education partnered with the Camden County Department of Health and Human Services to offer two free vaccination clinics at the Early Childhood Development Center and Centerville Head Start center for any 3- or 4-year-old child living in Camden.

In the state of New Jersey, preschool students who do not have up-to-date influenza vaccinations by the first day of school in 2019 will not be able to return to school. In Camden, that often can lead to chronic absenteeism for preschool students who are at a critical stage in their learning process.

In 2017, over 800 students were excluded from pre-k sites across the city on Jan. 2 for this reason.

“Not only do we focus on the children’s academic development, but we pay very close attention to their cognitive and social, emotional and physical development,” said Markeeta Nesmith, director of early childhood education for the school district. “For that very reason having children receive the proper immunizations is very important to us.”

Nesmith said that children who miss 10 percent of the school year, or 18 days, miss out on valuable instructional time and opportunities to develop the math, literacy, social and emotional skills “that are very important for their success in kindergarten and beyond.”

According to Nesmith, if a student does not have a flu shot by the first day of school in January, they are not allowed to return to school until they show their child has received one or until the end of flu season in April.

“Each year, Camden’s early childhood programs lose hundreds of students on the first day of school in January, simply because families have not been able to provide evidence of the child’s flu vaccination,” Acting Camden Schools Superintendent Katrina McCombs said. “Parents know how important their child’s health and education is, and we are here to partner with our parents to provide accessible ways to ensure their pre-k child is protected from the flu and ready for school.”

Nesmith said that a student will not use lose a seat in their school for not having a flu shot, but when “a child comes back after missing a month of school and they missed out on lots of instruction that had taken place in their absence.”

This fall, the school district has held three free flu shot clinics in partnership with CAMcare and the county.