Mississippi counties offer walk-in clinics for back-to-school shots

Extra nursing staff are taking walk-ins in 10 Mississippi counties as families race to get school shots on the record before classrooms open. The paperwork can determine whether a child starts on time or gets delayed at registration.

Lowndes, Wayne, Jones, Lauderdale, Winston, Oktibbeha, Chickasaw, Forrest, Clay and Monroe county health departments are offering the clinics for incoming kindergarten and seventh-grade students, and college students can also be vaccinated. The clinics run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on designated dates, and walk-in hours are 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on designated days.

Mississippi law requires immunizations for entry into school, Head Start and day care. Children entering school for the first time must have the required childhood immunizations or qualify for a medical or religious exemption. Students entering seventh grade need a Tdap booster if they have not received one since age 7. The required school-entry vaccines include DTaP, polio, hepatitis B, MMR and varicella.

Mississippi requires a Certificate of Immunization Compliance, Form 121, before a student can attend, and families can get it from a child’s doctor, a county health department or by downloading and printing it online. The state’s MyIR service lets parents look up immunization records and print Form 121 online if a child is already up to date.

The shots are available at low cost, and families who qualify for the Vaccines for Children program can get them free.