NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A2240
SPONSOR: Dinowitz TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to mandatory influen-
za vaccine for persons attending daycare
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill would require any child entering a licensed and registered
child daycare home, program, or facility to be immunized with adequate
doses against influenza virus.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Sections one amends section 2164 of the public health law to require
that any person in parental relation to a child in this state entering
or having entered a licensed and registered child daycare home, program,
or facility on or after the bill shall take effect, shall have adminis-
tered to such child an adequate dose or doses of immunizing agents
against influenza virus as recommended by the advisory committee on
immunization practices of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
which meets the standards approved by the United States public health
service for such biological products, and which is approved by the
department under such conditions as may be specified by the public
health and planning council. This section also adds influenza virus to
existing sections of law.
Section two provides the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
According to the New York City Department of Health, children age 5
years old and under produce the highest infection rates for seasonal
influenza annually. This legislation would ensure that young children
under state licensed care are at less of a risk to contract this poten-
tially deadly disease as well as ensuring all the children in their
shared environment are also protected.
Many children in daycares and preschools are exposed to daily close
contact with other young and possibly ill children. Often children of
this age group are too young to have been properly taught to cough prop-
erly and protect themselves from disease, vaccination is the best way to
make sure our youth is protected.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2019-20: A.2316 - Referred to Health / S.2276 - Referred to Health
2017-18: A.1230 - Referred to Codes / S.6346 - Referred to Health
2015-15: A.8633 - Referred to Health
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the State.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2240
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 14, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DINOWITZ, QUART, TAYLOR -- Multi-Sponsored by --
M. of A. RICHARDSON -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to mandatory influen-
za vaccine for persons attending daycare
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 2164 of the public health law, as amended by chap-
2 ter 401 of the laws of 2015, subdivision 6 as amended by chapter 35 of
3 the laws of 2019, is amended to read as follows:
4 § 2164. Definitions; immunization against poliomyelitis, mumps,
5 measles, diphtheria, rubella, varicella, Haemophilus influenzae type b
6 (Hib), pertussis, tetanus, pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease,
7 influenza virus, and hepatitis B. 1. As used in this section, unless the
8 context requires otherwise:
9 a. The term "school" means and includes any public, private or paro-
10 chial child caring center, day nursery, day care agency, nursery school,
11 kindergarten, elementary, intermediate or secondary school.
12 b. The term "child" shall mean and include any person between the ages
13 of two months and eighteen years.
14 c. The term "person in parental relation to a child" shall mean and
15 include his father or mother, by birth or adoption, his legally
16 appointed guardian, or his custodian. A person shall be regarded as the
17 custodian of a child if he has assumed the charge and care of the child
18 because the parents or legally appointed guardian of the minor have
19 died, are imprisoned, are mentally ill, or have been committed to an
20 institution, or because they have abandoned or deserted such child or
21 are living outside the state or their whereabouts are unknown, or have
22 designated the person pursuant to title fifteen-A of article five of the
23 general obligations law as a person in parental relation to the child.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02749-01-1
A. 2240 2
1 d. The term "health practitioner" shall mean any person authorized by
2 law to administer an immunization.
3 2. a. Every person in parental relation to a child in this state shall
4 have administered to such child an adequate dose or doses of an immuniz-
5 ing agent against poliomyelitis, mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella,
6 varicella, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), pertussis, tetanus,
7 pneumococcal disease, and hepatitis B, which meets the standards
8 approved by the United States public health service for such biological
9 products, and which is approved by the department under such conditions
10 as may be specified by the public health council.
11 b. Every person in parental relation to a child in this state born on
12 or after January first, nineteen hundred ninety-four and entering sixth
13 grade or a comparable age level special education program with an unas-
14 signed grade on or after September first, two thousand seven, shall have
15 administered to such child a booster immunization containing diphtheria
16 and tetanus toxoids, and an acellular pertussis vaccine, which meets the
17 standards approved by the United States public health service for such
18 biological products, and which is approved by the department under such
19 conditions as may be specified by the public health council.
20 c. Every person in parental relation to a child in this state entering
21 or having entered seventh grade and twelfth grade or a comparable age
22 level special education program with an unassigned grade on or after
23 September first, two thousand sixteen, shall have administered to such
24 child an adequate dose or doses of immunizing agents against meningococ-
25 cal disease as recommended by the advisory committee on immunization
26 practices of the centers for disease control and prevention, which meets
27 the standards approved by the United States public health service for
28 such biological products, and which is approved by the department under
29 such conditions as may be specified by the public health and planning
30 council.
31 d. Every person in parental relation to a child in this state entering
32 or having entered a licensed and registered child daycare home, program
33 or facility shall have administered to such child an adequate dose or
34 doses of immunizing agents against influenza virus as recommended by the
35 advisory committee on immunization practices of the centers for disease
36 control and prevention, which meets the standards approved by the United
37 States public health service for such biological products, and which is
38 approved by the department under such conditions as may be specified by
39 the public health and planning council.
40 3. The person in parental relation to any such child who has not
41 previously received such immunization shall present the child to a
42 health practitioner and request such health practitioner to administer
43 the necessary immunization against poliomyelitis, mumps, measles,
44 diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), rubella, varicella,
45 pertussis, tetanus, pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease, influ-
46 enza virus, and hepatitis B as provided in subdivision two of this
47 section.
48 4. If any person in parental relation to such child is unable to pay
49 for the services of a private health practitioner, such person shall
50 present such child to the health officer of the county in which the
51 child resides, who shall then administer the immunizing agent without
52 charge.
53 5. The health practitioner who administers such immunizing agent
54 against poliomyelitis, mumps, measles, diphtheria, Haemophilus influen-
55 zae type b (Hib), rubella, varicella, pertussis, tetanus, pneumococcal
56 disease, meningococcal disease, influenza virus, and hepatitis B to any
A. 2240 3
1 such child shall give a certificate of such immunization to the person
2 in parental relation to such child.
3 6. In the event that a person in parental relation to a child makes
4 application for admission of such child to a school or has a child
5 attending school and there exists no certificate or other acceptable
6 evidence of the child's immunization against poliomyelitis, mumps,
7 measles, diphtheria, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B, pertussis, teta-
8 nus, and, where applicable, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), menin-
9 gococcal disease, influenza virus, and pneumococcal disease, the princi-
10 pal, teacher, owner or person in charge of the school shall inform such
11 person of the necessity to have the child immunized, that such immuniza-
12 tion may be administered by any health practitioner, or that the child
13 may be immunized without charge by the health officer in the county
14 where the child resides, if such person executes a consent therefor. In
15 the event that such person does not wish to select a health practitioner
16 to administer the immunization, he or she shall be provided with a form
17 which shall give notice that as a prerequisite to processing the appli-
18 cation for admission to, or for continued attendance at, the school such
19 person shall state a valid reason for withholding consent or consent
20 shall be given for immunization to be administered by a health officer
21 in the public employ, or by a school physician or nurse. The form shall
22 provide for the execution of a consent by such person and it shall also
23 state that such person need not execute such consent if subdivision
24 eight of this section applies to such child.
25 7. (a) No principal, teacher, owner or person in charge of a school
26 shall permit any child to be admitted to such school, or to attend such
27 school, in excess of fourteen days, without the certificate provided for
28 in subdivision five of this section or some other acceptable evidence of
29 the child's immunization against poliomyelitis, mumps, measles, diphthe-
30 ria, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B, pertussis, tetanus, and, where
31 applicable, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), meningococcal disease,
32 influenza virus, and pneumococcal disease; provided, however, such four-
33 teen day period may be extended to not more than thirty days for an
34 individual student by the appropriate principal, teacher, owner or other
35 person in charge where such student is transferring from out-of-state or
36 from another country and can show a good faith effort to get the neces-
37 sary certification or other evidence of immunization.
38 (b) A parent, a guardian or any other person in parental relationship
39 to a child denied school entrance or attendance may appeal by petition
40 to the commissioner of education in accordance with the provisions of
41 section three hundred ten of the education law.
42 8. If any physician licensed to practice medicine in this state certi-
43 fies that such immunization may be detrimental to a child's health, the
44 requirements of this section shall be inapplicable until such immuniza-
45 tion is found no longer to be detrimental to the child's health.
46 8-a. Whenever a child has been refused admission to, or continued
47 attendance at, a school as provided for in subdivision seven of this
48 section because there exists no certificate provided for in subdivision
49 five of this section or other acceptable evidence of the child's immuni-
50 zation against poliomyelitis, mumps, measles, diphtheria, rubella, vari-
51 cella, hepatitis B, pertussis, tetanus, and, where applicable, Haemophi-
52 lus influenzae type b (Hib), meningococcal disease, influenza virus, and
53 pneumococcal disease, the principal, teacher, owner or person in charge
54 of the school shall:
55 a. forward a report of such exclusion and the name and address of such
56 child to the local health authority and to the person in parental
A. 2240 4
1 relation to the child together with a notification of the responsibility
2 of such person under subdivision two of this section and a form of
3 consent as prescribed by regulation of the commissioner, and
4 b. provide, with the cooperation of the appropriate local health
5 authority, for a time and place at which an immunizing agent or agents
6 shall be administered, as required by subdivision two of this section,
7 to a child for whom a consent has been obtained. Upon failure of a local
8 health authority to cooperate in arranging for a time and place at which
9 an immunizing agent or agents shall be administered as required by
10 subdivision two of this section, the commissioner shall arrange for such
11 administration and may recover the cost thereof from the amount of state
12 aid to which the local health authority would otherwise be entitled.
13 10. The commissioner may adopt and amend rules and regulations to
14 effectuate the provisions and purposes of this section.
15 11. Every school shall annually provide the commissioner, on forms
16 provided by the commissioner, a summary regarding compliance with the
17 provisions of this section.
18 § 2. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a
19 law.
