Wolf Administration officials today joined local school and health leaders, along with a parent, to educate and encourage others to get children vaccinated against COVID-19 before school starts.  

Acting Secretary of Health and Physician General Dr. Denise Johnson and Department of Human Services Acting Secretary Meg Snead joined Dr. Rodney Necciai, Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services at Pittsburgh Public Schools and Dr. Debra Bogen, Director of the Allegheny County Health Department along with a local parent who recently had their child vaccinated, also emphasized the importance of receiving required, routine vaccinations ahead of returning to school this fall.  

“As children complete their routine vaccinations and head back to the classroom this fall, I strongly encourage students to get fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 even if they have already had COVID-19,” said Dr. Johnson. “Vaccinations have proven to be effective to prevent severe disease – and there is a safe vaccine available now to best protect our youngest learners from contracting COVID-19.” 

“As a mom, I want to do everything I can to keep my kids safe as they head back to school. One easy thing I could do was make sure they got their COVID-19 vaccines,” said Snead. “COVID-19 vaccines are free, safe, and effective, and they help protect children and families from serious illness. I encourage all fellow parents and guardians in Pennsylvania to get their kids vaccinated before the school year starts.” 

In partnership with UPMC, Pittsburgh Public Schools continues to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to children and their families, including but not limited to the approved pediatric COVID-19 vaccine for ages six months to four years. The school district will host its next community COVID-19 vaccine clinic on Aug. 29 and 30; appointments are required and can be made by visiting www.pghschools.org/backandvaxxed.  

“As we prepare to bring students back to school, we want to do all we can to keep students in the classroom and limit disruptions to learning,” said Dr. Necciai. “We continue to hold vaccination clinics, in partnership with UPMC, to ensure staff, students, and their families can stay up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations.” 

“As a pediatrician, I focus on preventing illness and promoting health,” said Dr. Bogen. “Vaccinations are effective prevention tools including the COVID-19 vaccines which prevent severe disease in people of all ages. Please – to protect everyone in our schools – I ask everyone to get their COVID-19 and other age-appropriate vaccines.” 

In addition to upcoming vaccine clinic opportunities like the ones involving Pittsburgh Public Schools, Pennsylvanians can find a vaccine provider at vaccines.gov.  

While COVID-19 is not a required vaccination for those returning to school, there are other vaccinations that are required for children to enter and attend school in Pennsylvania. The vaccination requirements to enter and attend school vary depending on grade level, but all grade school students are required to receive at least:  

• Four doses of tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis 
• Four doses of polio (unless the third dose was administered at age 4 years or older and at least six months after the previous dose then there are only three doses required) 
• Two doses of measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) 
• Three doses of hepatitis B 
• Two doses of varicella (chickenpox) or evidence of immunity 

For information relating to required vaccinations for students in school, please visit www.health.pa.gov.

In an August 9, 2022 Pennlink memo from PA Children’s Health Insurance Program Executive Director  Nicole Harris to all LEAs,  School Superintendents and Chief Administrators are notified that the Pennsylvania ACT 84 of 2015 requires that public and nonpublic schools receive electronic notice of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) on an annual basis no later than August 15. A flyer has been created and is to be shared with every parent or guardian of every student enrolled in the district during the school year.
CHIP covers uninsured kids and teens up to age 19. With more than 128,000 uninsured children in Pennsylvania, this is great news for families!
CHIP provides quality, comprehensive health insurance for routine doctor visits, prescriptions, dental, eye care, eyeglasses, mental health and much more. CHIP covers uninsured kids who are not eligible for Medical Assistance. For most families, CHIP is free – for others, it is low cost.
School Superintendents and Chief Administrators are advised to forward the CHIP flyer to each school under their jurisdiction at the beginning of the school year. The flyer can be sent directly through email, posted to a school website with a link distributed to students’ families, printed or distributed with other information that is being sent as caregiver packets, or prepared for students to take home. The flyer and many more resources can be found on the CHIP website at www.CHIPcoversPAkids.com, under CHIP Resources.

In a continuing effort to better serve the educator workforce, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has revamped its website to allow current and prospective educators to more easily access information related to certifications.

“Throughout the extensive feedback we solicited from educators and administrators, PDE heard loud and clear that both its certification process and webpage needed to be improved, and the department acted expeditiously to make the process more seamless and easier-to-use,” said Acting Secretary of Education Eric Hagarty. “Along with dozens of action steps woven into the department’s Educator Workforce Strategy, these changes will improve customer service and help educators more easily obtain the services and resources they need.”

The site restructure used analytics to determine which pages were most highly visited and prioritized them in this effort. The Certification page is consistently one of the most visited pages on the PDE website. Since January 1, 2022, the page has had more than 209,000 unique visitors.

Changes to the Certification page include more easy-to-follow breakdowns on common topics that educators are searching for; condensed and updated frequently asked questions; a step-by-step guide and instructional YouTube video for first-time users; and more.

This effort responds to feedback received from the field and supplements PDE’s recently released strategic plan to recruit and retain more educators across the commonwealth, The Foundation of Our Economy: Pennsylvania Educator Workforce Strategy, 2022-2025.

Some participants in the feedback sessions noted that the current website for certification and the Teacher Information Management System (TIMS) are not intuitive and are hard to navigate. Some complaints were shared regarding the difficulty in remembering the login to the site.

Additionally, as noted in Pennsylvania’s ARP ESSER State Plan, PDE is in the process of identifying upgrades for both the Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS) and the TIMS to better anticipate educator staffing needs at local education agencies (LEAs) across Pennsylvania.

The educator-workforce plan builds on the Wolf Administration’s efforts over the past eight years to ensure a high-quality education to learners of all ages across the commonwealth. The administration has increased education funding by more than $3.7 billion since 2015, with an historic increase of $1.8 billion in this year’s final budget.

For more information about Pennsylvania’s education policies and programs, please visit the PDE website.

The Pennsylvania departments of Education, Health, Human Services and Insurance are reminding families to ensure their children’s immunizations are up to date as part of back-to-school preparations.

Vaccine-preventable diseases, such as chicken pox, meningitis, measles, whooping cough, and others are still seen across the commonwealth. Keeping children up to date on vaccinations is the best way to keep them healthy and reduce unnecessary absences from school. Staying up to date with immunizations provides the best protection against disease and is essential to individual and population health.

Under the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans, including those bought through Pennie®, as well as the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid, are required to cover school vaccinations as a free preventive service without charging a copayment or coinsurance.

These immunizations are covered regardless of whether or not the yearly deductible has been met. However, it is important to make sure that the doctor or provider who administers the immunization is within your health insurance plan’s network, or you may be responsible for the cost.

Immunization-preventable diseases can be very dangerous, may require hospitalization, and can even result in death. A discussion with your doctor or your child’s doctor can help determine which vaccines are needed.

“Getting vaccinated and staying up to date is one of the easiest, most cost-effective ways to prevent disease,” said Acting Secretary of Health and Pennsylvania Physician General Dr. Denise Johnson. “Vaccines help protect everyone, including people with compromised immune systems who cannot get vaccinated. It is essential that everyone, especially children, are up-to-date on all recommended immunizations before heading back to school.” 

In recent years, a change in state regulations altered the provisional period in which students could attend school without their vaccinations from eight months to five days. Children in grades K-12 need the following immunizations for attendance: tetanus, diphtheria, polio, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), hepatitis B, and chickenpox. Children entering the seventh grade also need additional immunizations of meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV) and tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis (Tdap). If a child does not have at least one dose of the above immunizations, they risk exclusion from school. Additionally, while the COVID-19 vaccine is not mandatory to attend school, the Wolf Administration encourages Pennsylvanians ages 5 and older to get the COVID-19 vaccine to help ensure their safety during the 2022-2023 school year.

Health coverage is available for all children in Pennsylvania. No family makes too much money to purchase coverage through CHIP, and families or children may qualify for coverage through Medical Assistance. CHIP and Medicaid can ensure parents can access affordable health coverage and care for their children. Immunizations and well-child visits necessary to help kids stay healthy are covered through both of these programs.

“As a parent, I want to do everything I can to protect my kids and keep them safe. By vaccinating my kids, I am sending them off to school this fall knowing that they are as protected as possible from preventable diseases, and I encourage other parents to do the same,” said Acting DHS Secretary Meg Snead. “DHS administers programs like Medical Assistance and CHIP so that families and children don’t have to go without health care coverage, including important and potentially life-saving vaccinations.”

More information on CHIP can be found at www.chipcoverspakids.com. Families can apply for coverage through the CHIP program and determine their eligibility for Medical Assistance and other public assistance programs online at www.compass.state.pa.us. Those who prefer to submit paper documents can print from the website or request an application by phone at 1-800-692-7462 and mail it to their local County Assistance Office (CAO). Families do not need to know their own eligibility in order to apply.

Anyone looking to visit a local immunization clinic to receive vaccinations should call 1-877-PA-HEALTH (1-877-724-3258) to schedule an appointment. Pennsylvanians should have their vaccination records available when they call to make an appointment. A parent or legal guardian must accompany a child receiving immunizations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes August as National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). This annual observance highlights the importance of getting recommended vaccines. Whether children are homeschooled or attend a public, private, charter or religious school, state laws require they stay up to date for certain vaccinations based on their age, as recommended by the CDC.

Additional information on immunizations can be found on the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s website at health.pa.gov.