BUFFALO, N.Y. — Over 1,000 Buffalo Public School students are not able to attend school because they are not properly vaccinated. District officials started notifying parents in advance of the school year to make sure their children were properly vaccinated.
Over the summer New York voted to ban the state’s religious exemptions from vaccines. For years parents could send their children to school unvaccinated.
“We as a district have to be very serious about the public health law making sure students have the proper vaccinations to go to school," said Dr. Darren Brown-Hall, chief of staff for the Buffalo Public Schools.
Students who came to school on Monday without proper vaccinations were placed in a designated area and sent home with a parent.
Last week there were 5,000 students who did not have the proper immunizations in Buffalo Schools. On Friday, the number was 3,271 students
and by Tuesday the number dropped to 1,500.
Mariana Cole-Rivera's 14-year-old daughter is autistic and attends a special program at City Honors. She says her daughter can receive the vaccine if it is done in separate doses, but not as one.
“If they give me three vials of the three different vaccines, I'm all for it, but if they are going to bind them together where she can not handle them and it’s going to make her condition worse, I'm not for it,” Cole-Rivera said.
2 On Your Side asked school officials if a parent has a note for a future appointment to get vaccinated can the child attend school.
“Only if they've had the first dosage of whatever vaccination is necessary but just an appointment without prior dosage they are not able to attend," Brown-Hall.
School districts can be fined $2,000 per student for not complying with the law.
The Maryvale School District in Cheektowaga had 11 students who were not in compliance. Williamsville Schools had zero.