A Healthy Child is a “School-Ready” Child

August is back to school month for us Georgians. It’s also National Immunization Awareness Month. Most pediatricians would tell you that this is an optimal pairing; that parents should plan for their kids’ vaccinations as intentionally as they stock up on shiny new sneakers and fresh crayon boxes. 

“In order for children to be ready to learn, they do have to be healthy, and when I think of healthy, I go straight to immunization,” Dr. Terri D. McFadden told us recently. As a practicing pediatrician and professor of pediatrics at Emory School of Medicine, she says she sees too many patients with preventable diseases, including a summer surge of Covid. This is due, in part, to declining immunization rates. According to GEEARS’ 2023 Early Childhood Checkup, which uses the most recently available data, in 2019, 64.6% of Georgia children received their recommended 7-vaccine series by 35 months, a 5.7% decrease from the previous year. Anecdotal evidence suggests that vaccinations have dipped further since then.

McFadden has several explanations for the decline. 

“The pandemic affected access to care,” she remembers. “There was a lot of fear about bringing children into their appointments. So, during the worst of the pandemic, many fell behind and have not caught back up.” (GEEARS also reported on this phenomenon in the summer of 2020.) 

“Another reason,” McFadden notes, “is there is so much politicization and divisive talk around the Covid vaccine, and there’s been some spillover into people’s thinking about other vaccines.”  

Even parents who are willing to keep their children up to date on their shots may face barriers. McFadden notes that 65 Georgia counties have no pediatricians. 

And then there’s the crisis that is Medicaid’s unwinding. 

With the impending end of pandemic-era policies, all Georgians who use Medicaid or PeachCare for Kids must verify their eligibility to remain covered. But some families haven’t gotten the message about this mandate, or they’ve found the complex redetermination process to be too difficult to navigate. The result—more than 63,000 Georgia children recently lost their Medicaid coverage in just one month.

And access to doctor visits and immunizations aren’t the only health measures parents need to be on top of. Kindergarten teachers surveyed by the National Center on Early Childhood Health and Wellnesshave reported that “being physically healthy, rested and well-nourished . . . were the most essential qualities for children to be ready for kindergarten.”

All this is a lot for parents. So, McFadden says, it’s up to Georgia’s healthcare community to smooth the way for them. 

“We should probably do a better job of engaging parents who receive information differently than in the past,” she says, adding that she encourages parents to seek out tips and news on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Healthy Children site or monitor climate conditions through an air quality app, especially for kids with asthma.

It’s also important for overwhelmed parents to give themselves grace and remember this: school readiness is a journey, not a destination that must be attained by the first day of kindergarten. In fact, your school can contribute to your child’s health. Some schools even feature school-based health centers. (These centers’ patient options are determined by the individual schools.) 

“There are 120 school-based health centers in Georgia,” McFadden says. “They’re an excellent resource for eliminating every barrier to care for children. And the governor has invested in school-based health centers across the state so we’re looking forward to a lot more of those over the next few years.” 

And you can bet all those health centers, along with every pediatrician you meet, is going to hone in on those shots. If your child’s school, and its immunization requirements, are the impetus to get your children vaccinated—hey, it’s never too late. 

“Vaccines are the single most important reason infant and child mortality rates have plummeted over the past 100 years,” McFadden says. “As we’re coming through this pandemic and reaching our new normal, I’m encouraged to see parents get back into their routines and do what we know is best for our children. Collectively, that’s what we all want—what’s best for them.” 
Click here to access GEEARS’ Early Childhood Checkup. For more information about immunizations and their importance, check out resources like this CDC site or this info sheet from Voices for Georgia’s Children.

This is sponsored content.