Experts discuss importance of vaccination prior to school year

As summer winds down and families prepare for the back-to-school rush, pediatricians can play a critical role in helping parents catch up on essential vaccines, especially for children who may have fallen behind during the pandemic.

“I think it is important to go back in history to understand how we even linked vaccines to the school year,” said Lori Handy, MD, MSCE, associate director of the Vaccine Education Center and attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “This is related to earlier vaccines—measles vaccine, polio vaccine—where we had diseases that spread heavily in schools.”

For many families, the start of school serves as a practical checkpoint to ensure children are protected before entering crowded classrooms. Pediatricians can guide parents in differentiating between school vaccine requirements and the full childhood immunization schedule.

“To know the difference between the childhood immunization schedule, as recommended by the CDC, vs a school requirement is important. They are different,” Handy said. “As pediatricians, we want to ensure children receive the right vaccines to be healthy, and that means following the full immunization schedule.”

Vaccine catch-up remains a pressing need. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of children missed scheduled immunizations. “We find that it is a significant rush for kids who have, for whatever reason, fallen behind,” said Jesse Hackell, MD, FAAP, chair of the AAP Committee on Pediatric Workforce. “The summer months are a time when people make an increased effort to ensure that their kids are completely up to date.”

As misinformation spreads across media platforms, both Hackell and Handy stressed the importance of providers becoming trusted resources. “In this moment of so much misinformation and changing information, the most trusted resource and the most trusted messenger is the child’s pediatric provider,” said Handy.

Their message to parents is clear: talk to your pediatrician, get up to date on vaccines, and ensure your child is healthy and ready to thrive in the classroom.

This is a recap for "Aligning vaccinations with the start of the school year," article, which appeared in our August 2025 Back-to-School issue. For a more detailed and expanded version of this article, click here.

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