Pennsylvania health and school officials aim to reduce the numbers of preventable diseases such as measles by reducing the time allotted for students to be fully inoculated, from eight months to five days.

"The measles outbreak in California prompted the commonwealth to re-examine its policies for preventing similar outbreaks in our schools," said Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera."Currently, Pennsylvania is below the 95 percent benchmark to achieve herd immunity. Our goal is to identify why Pennsylvania's levels are this low, and then put in place measures which could increase them."Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient proportion of a population has been vaccinated, making it unlikely that infectious disease will spread from person to person."The current eight-month provisional window for immunization presents a very real risk for children to become infected and potentially spread preventable, communicable diseases to others," said Secretary of Health Dr. Karen Murphy.Children are barred from entering school if they are missing the first dose of a required single or multidose vaccine.Under a proposal created by the state Department of Education and the state Department of Health, the window for getting a final dose of vaccine (or, if the medical schedule does not allow, a medical certificate that includes a plan for completing the multidose immunization) would shrink from eight months to the first five school days.Local districts would remain the final authority on whether to allow a student who does not adhere to his or her medical plan.The proposal also changes some of the state's vaccination requirements, such as requiring a pertussis vaccine and a dose of meningococcal vaccine for students before entering 12th grade.Exemptions are in place for parents who object to immunizations on religious, philosophical, or strong moral/ethical convictions.Lehighton pediatrician Narendra Ambani weighed in favorably on the proposal."Immunization against communicable disease is very important, especially as children enter school. The window of eight months is a long period. My feeling is that they should be given a 30-day grace period," he said.The regulations apply to children in public, private, parochial and nonpublic schools, including vocational schools, intermediate units, special education and home education programs, cyber schools, and charter schools.Local school officials say they aren't seeing many cases of missed vaccinations, but most support the proposal."Philosophically, yes, the district supports many changes in the new proposal," said Jim Thorpe area School District Superintendent Brian J. Gasper."We always support measures intended to increase the health benefits of our student population."Gasper said less than 2 percent of the district's high school students are not immunized under the religious belief exemption.School nurses and health professionals "don't believe that parents necessarily balk at getting the proper immunizations, but offer many excuses dealing with difficulties in receiving documents from other states parents working in another states and insurance hurdles, transportation issues, and a general lack of urgency in many cases," he said."At the end of the day, we are here to educate our children. With that said, the healthier our students are, the more they attend our schools regularly, actively participate in the daily lessons and contribute to the school community," Gasper said.Panther Valley School District Superintendent Dennis R. Kergick Sr. said the district "desires to adhere to the newly created guidelines from the (state) Department of Health and the (state Department of Education)."The Panther Valley School District is always attempting to meet the many updated policies and guidelines," he said.Kergick cited elementary school nurse, Carrie Selinko."We strictly follow the Department of Health guidelines. Most of our students are current on immunizations," she said, according to Kergick."A very low percentage of parents are against the policy and practice. Ultimately, we all need to ensure the safety and well-being of all Panther Valley students," Kergick said.Another Panther Valley school nurse, Kathy Inama, said there is a "slight increase in parents choosing not to immunize their children. All students should be immunized except those with specific medical reasons for exemption. In a perfect world, students would be completely immunized before enrolling in school."Weatherly Area School District Superintendent Thomas McLaughlin is not in favor of the change."We are greatly concerned about the recommendation to decrease the provision from eight months to five days," he said. "This rigid mandate could keep many children from attending school, especially kindergartners and seventh-grade students (the year when boosters are mandated)."Historically, it takes many months of reminders, letters and personal contact with parents to facilitate their compliance in getting the necessary shots," McLaughlin said.He said Weatherly has "only a handful" of students who are exempt from certain immunizations for moral or medical reasons.The Associated Press contributed to this report.