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No vax/preschool support needed...Waltham, MA?

584 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  bjorker 
#1 ·
Has anyone here enrolled a no vax child into the public school system in Waltham, MA? What were your experiences?

My daughter recently was accepted in the public preschool program here. Its a highly desired/limited space program. I think there are 5 open spaces that hundreds of kids interview for (which seems really dumb to me since I am from Minnesota where preschool is free and available to everyone.) Regardless, my daughter was chosen which we are thrilled about because we really want the experience for her. My problem now is that I can't stop worrying that she might lose out on this experience because of the vaccine issue. I know about the religious exemption and how to submit it. I'm just worried about being challenged.

I think i'm shell shocked by an experience we had during our first ER visit last week. Our daughter cut her finger so we had to take her to the urgent care here in Waltham. The triage nurse asked if our daughter was up to date with vaccines and I told her she was not vaccinated. The nurse spun around in her chair, looked me in the eyes and said "She's NOT vaccinated??" I said no and she spun back around and typed it into the file. Then the doctor who saw us mildly lectured us about tetanus. While we were waiting to be discharged we overheard a conversation outside our door between our doctor, the attending physician and 2 nurses about "lockjaw" and the other risks of tetanus. So basically we knew they were talking about us and the fact that we hadn't vaccinated our daughter. It was upsetting to be questioned and to feel so judged. I want to not care but I really did care.

I think that situation has me worried about the preschool thing. I don't want our choice to not vax to interfere with her opportunities in life or the way people treat her.

I need a pep talk!

Also, if you have any experiences with Waltham public schools/vaccines I would be so grateful to hear them.

Thanks in advance!
 
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#2 ·
I don't have any experience in Waltham, but nearby Framingham. I was expecting at least a pause or blink or SOMETHING when I submitted our religious waiver, but they just took it like it was nothing and never said a word. A few weeks later I got a call from the school nurse. I was expecting trouble. She wanted me to stop by the office some time because I forgot to sign the vax waiver I submitted. That's it.
And when I did go in a week or so later and said I was there to sign it, she had totally forgotten, said she didn't care if it was signed or not, and acted like it was an inconvenience to even get out my son's file.
She sooo did not care.
I hope it goes as well for you!! LOL
 
#3 ·
Hi,
I lived in Newton, and we had no problem submitting a religious exemption for her private preschool, and then when she started public kindergarten, there was no issue at all. They didn't mention that the exemption was an option, just the usual, "You must bring in her vaccination medical forms" but when I said we were submitting an exemption they said, "okay".

Good luck!
 
#4 ·
I saw this in new posts and wanted to comment on one thing. Disclaimer: I'm not from your area and don't know anything about MA in particular. However, here in WA where we can legally use personal "philosophical" exemptions, they still word "vaccination requirements" in schools as if we don't have a choice. It's common to see something like "Children must be up to date on all vaccinations and show proof during the enrollment process" which is NOT true. That stuff always sounds so intimidating, but try not to worry about it. When we enrolled dd in preschool, even the head of the school mentioned that we had to fill out the vax forms and turn it in, but all we turned in was our exemption and we never heard a word about it.

There might be some helpful information on this site for you: http://vaclib.org/exemption.htm
But really, it sounds like you're all set!
 
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