University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health shows that most parents agree that all children in day care centers should be vaccinated.
According to the poll, 74 percent of parents would consider removing their own child from the day care if 25 percent of the children at the day care were not up-to-date on vaccines.
Most parents agree that all children in day care centers should be vaccinated, and that day care providers should be checking vaccine records every year, according to the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
All states require vaccines for children who attend day care, but those requirements may not include every vaccine from birth to age 5 years. As a result, some children still don’t receive all recommended vaccines—leaving day care providers and parents to decide how to handle the situation of a child who is not up-to-date on vaccines.
In this national sample of parents of children ages newborn to 5 years, most indicate that day care providers should review children’s immunization status every year to ensure they are up-to-date (52 percent strongly agree, 22 percent agree).
“Results of this poll indicate that most parents want strong policies around making sure children in day care are up-to-date on vaccines,” says Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., associate director of the National Poll on Children’s Health and associate research scientist in the University of Michigan Department of Pediatrics. “Checking vaccination records every year is beyond the scope of many state requirements, and may represent a significant change in practice at many day cares.”
The poll gave parents a scenario where 1 in 4 children in their day care center were not up-to-date on vaccines. In response to this scenario, 74 percent of parents would consider removing their own child from the day care.
“This scenario mirrors the national statistics that show approximately 25 percent of preschool children in the United States are not fully vaccinated,” Clark says. “Parents may not realize that so many children are not up-to-date. In some day cares, this scenario is a reality.”
When asked about how day care centers should deal with a child who is not up-to-date on vaccines, 41 percent of parents support excluding the child until all vaccines are received; 28 percent would allow a grace period to get the child vaccinated; and 21 percent would insist that the parents seek a waiver from the child’s doctor. Only 1 in 10 parents would support allowing a child to attend day care regardless of not being up-to-date on vaccines.
Two-thirds of parents indicate they should be informed of the number of children at their day care center who are not up-to-date on vaccines. But only 25 percent of parents believe they should receive the names of children who are not up-to-date on vaccines.
“Our poll finding that parents want to know the number of children lacking vaccines makes sense,” Clark says. “That information might help parents understand the risk that their child could contract a vaccine-preventable disease—or transmit the disease to a vulnerable family member, such as a person with cancer.
“The bottom line is this poll shows that parents of young children have real concerns about whether vaccination standards are upheld in the day care setting. Parents should feel empowered to ask about day care vaccination policies, such as how the day care handles the situation of children who are not up-to-date, and whether they check children’s vaccination status every year,” Clark says.
The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health—based at the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Michigan and funded by the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and the University of Michigan Health System—is designed to measure major health care issues and trends for children in the U.S.
