Monday, Oct. 6, 2014, 12:51 a.m. Updated 14 minutes ago
When students in Highlands School District needed a shot in the arm, the state was willing to provide it.
Those days are gone. They ended in the 2013-14 school year when the School Influenza Vaccination Program was discontinued.
The program, funded through the federal government, provided free inoculations for students against influenza.
''I think the schools were very grateful that we had that program in place and there was some disappointment when that went away,' said Cindy Findley, director of the division of immunizations for the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Findley and Holli Senior, deputy press secretary for the state health department, said the program was ended because of a 54 percent reduction in federal funds for that program that went into effect this year. She said the state was getting about $2 million in federal funding for the program.
It was part of the automatic federal budget cuts, known as the sequester, that would take effect if Congress and President Obama could not agree on budget cuts to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion. Congress passed the legislation in 2011, and, when budget a reduction plan could not be agreed upon, Congress allowed the cuts to go into effect, starting in 2013.
Only five of the Alle-Kiski Valley's 15 school districts participated in the program in its last year, according to the health department. Highlands was an active participant, according to Kim Woodrow, school nurse at Highlands High School who coordinated the program.
'We participated every year from the time they initiated it,' Woodrow said. 'I know it's been in the past four or five years that we were issued free flu vaccine.'
Officials from the New Kensington-Arnold School District, which also participated in the program, according to the state, did not return a reporter's calls seeking comment.
'I did not expect it at all,' Woodrow said of the program's termination. 'They contacted me at the end of the last school year and told me this was done. There was no warning whatsoever.'
As for the other 46 percent of the federal funds, Findley said, 'The remaining amount we use to provide vaccines at our state health centers for uninsured and underinsured adults,'
Overall, she said, the state has an immunization budget of $70 million, which includes its Vaccines for Children program that provides a variety of required childhood immunizations and immunizations for adults. The immunizations are free for people who meet an eligibility test based on family income and if they are uninsured or underinsured, Findley said. That includes flu vaccines, she added.
'Previously, we were in a position where we didn't have to do the screening. It was much freer but now, due to the reduction in federal funding, we have to do that,' Findley said.
But she believes that school students still are receiving the flu vaccines through what she referred to as the 'home medical model' where the cost is covered by the family's health insurance.
'If anything, we are seeing a shift in the children being recommended to their primary care physicians to receive it,' Findley said.
Woodrow said the free vaccine program at Highlands served about 300 kids. That is out of a total enrollment of from 2,600 to 2,800 students over the past four to five years.Woodrow thinks that's because the majority of parents take their children to their family physicians. Still, she thinks the vaccination program will be missed - particularly if there is a major flu outbreak.
'It just has a tendency to go rampant through the buildings,' Woodrow said. 'If there is some type of protection, then it is worth it.'
Tom Yerace is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-226-4675 or tyerace@tribweb.com.
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