General Assembly Passes Englin Bill To Protect Children During Public Health Emergencies

(Tuesday) February 23, 2010

Law ensures public, private, home schooled children have equal access to vaccines during emergencies

The General Assembly yesterday passed legislation sponsored by Delegate David Englin (D-45) to protect children during public health emergencies by ensuring they have equal access to life-saving vaccines. House Bill 270 requires the Virginia Department of Health’s emergency vaccination plans to include procedures to ensure the prompt vaccination of all school-aged children, without preference as to whether they attend private schools, charter schools, traditional public schools, or are home schooled.

“During the H1N1 vaccination emergency last fall, I heard from private school parents concerned that their children didn’t have the same access to the vaccine as students in public schools,” said Englin, who serves on the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee in the House. “While it turned out that health departments in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax actually did a good job coordinating with private and parochial schools, my research turned up cases in Southwest Virginia and elsewhere where non-public school students were refused access to the H1N1 vaccine, including a severely disabled, home schooled child who ended up catching swine flu. This bill will ensure the appropriate level of statewide planning to so those kids will be protected in the future.”

Englin worked closely with the Virginia Catholic Conference to ensure the bill included appropriate language to preserve parental consent for vaccination, and he brought together Department of Health officials and public school, private school, parochial school, and home schooling advocates to negotiate language to satisfy the concerns of all parties. At one point, a disagreement between competing factions of home school advocates appeared to have stymied the bill. However, Englin worked with members of the Health Subcommittee to resurrect the legislation and win unanimous approval from the subcommittee members.

“Nobody has been a stronger advocate for our public schools than me,” said Englin, whose son is an Alexandria City Public Schools fifth grader. “However, when it comes to protecting the health and safety of our children, it shouldn’t make a difference what kind of school a kid goes to.”

The bill passed the House of Delegates on Feb. 11 by a vote of 96 to three, and the Senate passed it unanimously Monday.

Delegate David Englin is Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and is serving his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he represents the 45th District, which includes parts of the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Arlington County. He serves on the Finance Committee, the Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee, and the Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee.

RSS Feed