With just two weeks left in summer for most Central Coast kids, back to school is top of mind for many parents.
"My wife's going to take my daughter back-to-school shopping Friday," said Andrew Danowitz, a dad of two children, 5 and 3.
"We have to do the whole shoe thing, because they keep growing and growing out of them," said Ryan Gifford, the father of a 13-year-old and a 6-year-old.
Besides getting the back-to-school essentials, parents are also keeping vaccination requirements in mind.
"He got one last year, but we've been keeping up to date," said Casey Cardenas, a dad. "There's nothing like crazy in particular that we have."
"We make sure they get all the vaccines that are recommended and that we can get, and hopefully other parents do too," said Danowitz.
While at the national level, there have been talks of vaccination requirement changes. Here locally, pediatricians say requirements have stayed the same.
"Schools recommend certain vaccines and require them to prevent communicable illnesses at school," said Dr. Kara Bryden, a local Pediatrician. "So, the ones that they found to be most important to protect against are hepatitis B, whooping cough and polio, as well as measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox."
In May, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer recommends the Covid vaccine for healthy children. Local pediatricians still strongly encourage getting it, but it won’t be required for school vaccinations this year.
"Typically between 2 and 18 months," said Dr. Bryden, "children are getting the most of their initial vaccines because their immune system needs more frequent reminders to keep that protection going."
