By MATT PIKE
The St. Joseph Health Department has partnered up with the St. Joseph School District to get students vaccinated and ready for the fall semester earlier.
Vaccination clinics are being held throughout the district high school and middle schools to prepare students for vaccinations, or get vaccinations done, to avoid overcrowding during the rush ahead of the fall semester.
Interim Clinic Supervisor Kristi Billings says the big part of the partnership is benefiting not only the parents, but the students as well.
"So they don’t have to miss school to get here, parents don’t have to miss work or stand in a long line, because sometimes you don’t know your child needs a shot until the day you’re going to enroll them into school and they’re like oh by the way they’re missing this,” Billings tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “And so, we’re just trying to prevent parents and students alike from having to last minute rush around trying to find somewhere to get these vaccinations and get their kid into school, so they don’t have to miss school, miss work.”
“It’s just a huge benefit we’re hoping to build on in the coming years that way they don’t have to worry about any of those burdens.”
Billings says health department helps provide an idea of what vaccines students might need,
"Because all these vaccines that they’ve mandated for schools are during certain age ranges for children, and so the school district has been really good about reminding if your child is going into this grade and their this age, they may need a vaccine, that’s something they just call the health department, we can look up their vaccine record and see if the child needs anything,” Billings explains. “They can also call their provider and do the same and that kind of gives them a heads up of what they might need.”
Billings says the first of the seven clinics on Tuesday saw students and parents being very receptive
"Every time you start something new, it’s new and people have hesitations and that’s understandable, and so it’s a learning curve for everybody, and we’re just hoping to build upon it,” Billings says. “But I think it was amazing, we ended up doing 16 children on Tuesday and we gave 28 vaccines.”
The health department will host two more clinics today. Clinics will be held at Truman Middle School from 8am to 11am and Bode Middle School from 11:30am to 2:30pm.
One will be held on April 7th at Central High School, and two more will be held April 9th at Lafayette High School from 8 to 11aml and Robidoux Middle School.11:30am to 2:30pm.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.