A Brownsboro Elementary School student arrives for class on Aug. 24, 2009. About 80 students were forced to stay home on the first day of school last year after they failed to receive their state-required immunizations. File Photo Brownsboro Independent School District Assistant Superintendent Vicki York is warning parents that students must have their staterequired immunizations before they are allowed to attend class on Aug. 23, the first day of the new school year.

“Our nurses have sent out several letters about this and, hopefully, doctors and clinics have made parents aware. They were bombarded last year.”

About 80 seventh-graders were forced to stay home on the first day of school on Aug. 24, 2009, because they had not been vaccinated. On the same day, the Texas Department of State Health Services faxed a letter to district officials issuing an “emergency rule” allowing unvaccinated students to provisionally attend classes through Sept. 30.

Such a waiver will not be available this year, York said.

The declaration applied to seventh-graders and students in grades 8 through 12 who are required to receive vaccinations for meningococcal, tetanus, diptheria, pertussis and varicella. DSHS said at the time the available supply of vaccines in some local clinics had been exhausted because of increased demand.

Last year, DSHS implemented new vaccination requirements for five vaccines for students in kindergarten and seventh grade, according to a press release. The new requirements are being phased in over several years.

For 2010-2011, the requirements also will apply to first- and eighth-graders who did not receive the required vaccines in kindergarten or seventh grade.

“We want parents to plan ahead,” DSHS Commissioner Dr. David Lakey said. “(Children) should get vaccinated as soon as possible to avoid long wait times at clinics and ensure they are protected before the first day of school.”

Here are the vaccination requirements:

*Kindergarteners and first-graders must have had two varicella or chickenpox vaccines, two hepatitis A vaccines and two measles, mumps and rubella vac- cines.

•Seventh through 12thgrade students must have had one booster shot of the Tdap vaccine (a combination of the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccines).

•Students entering seventh grade are required to have had a booster dose of Tdap only if it has been five years since their last dose of a tetanus-containing vaccine.

•Eighth through 12thgrade students must have had a booster dose of Tdap only if it has been 10 years since their last dose of tetanus containing vaccine.

•Seventh- and eighthgraders must have received two doses of chickenpox vaccine if they have not had the illness and one dose of the meningitis vaccine.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meningitis is an inflammation of membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord, usually caused by a viral or bacterial infection.

Viral meningitis is generally less severe and does not require specific treatment. Bacterial meningitis can result in brain damage, hearing loss, or learning disabilities.

Pertussis is another name for whooping cough, and varicella refers to chicken pox.