Danielle Koenig
Health Promotion Supervisor
Center for Public Affairs, Washington State Department of Health
Around June 28, 2021, families with children ages 4 to 6 years old received letters in the mail from the Washington State Department of Health with information about which vaccines their child may be missing. PDF examples of these letters in English and Spanish are attached. It also includes the parent chart: Required Immunizations for School Year 2021-2022. All students, including those learning remotely, need to be in compliance with immunization requirements when school starts in the fall. Learn more about school and child care immunizations at www.doh.wa.gov/scci.
Please work with parents to help catch up and prepare children for more in-person activities.
Please promote COVID-19 vaccination as well. Right now, children ages 12 and up are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, but we expect younger children may be eligible for this vaccine as early as this fall. COVID-19 vaccine can now be given at the same time as any other vaccines—there is no longer a need to wait 2 weeks between COVID-19 vaccines and other routine childhood vaccines. Learn more about COVID-19 vaccination at www.CovidVaccineWA.org.
Editor’s note: For materials to help promote vaccinations, visit the Immunity Community web page and look at the Vax Into Summer and Vax to School materials. You’ll find a provider toolkit with suggested email language, social media, and more. Materials are intended to communicate the need to catch up on all vaccinations, and also mention COVID-19 vaccine for those ages 12 and up. Social media materials are available in Spanish and English, plus Somali for some items, and we hope to have them translated into more languages soon. The Dear Parent letters are available in 10 languages. Here are direct links to the Vax Into Summer materials:
Help us promote our Vax into Summer campaign with your networks! This social media toolkit includes shareable images and messaging that you can use on your own social media and communications channels:
“Dear Parent” Letters
These letters are for clinics and health care providers to send out to the parents or caregivers of their pediatric patients. These letters come in several languages and can be downloaded below as editable Word Documents: