Courtney Mabeus, The Examiner
2007-12-03 08:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Promising to make good on threats that adults who fail to fully immunize their children could face jail time or fines, Prince George’s County education officials began giving the names of derelict parents to State Attorney Glenn Ivey’s office, schools spokesman John White said.

As many as 900 public school students remained out of compliance heading into the weekend for either not having been vaccinated or failing to get all the shots they need, White said.

“Numbers keep coming down, and we’re providing information packets to the courts on individual cases for further cases,” White said.

No parents have been arrested or fined yet, Ivey spokesman Ramon Korionoff said.

“We don’t want to put parents in jail, we want to put kids in school,” he said.

After months of frustration on the part of school leaders to get 2,300 schoolchildren who remained out of compliance on their vaccinations up to date, Ivey announced in mid-November that parents could face fines of up to $50 per day or 10 days in jail for failing to fully immunize them. Thousands of those children had been barred from attending school for weeks after missing a Sept. 30 immunization deadline.

About 170 schoolchildren and their parents attended a free daylong clinic held Nov. 17 at the county courthouse in Upper Marlboro. White said other children have come into compliance since then, but an exact figure was not expected to be available until today.

Korionoff said parents could be charged if they are found to be the cause of their child’s chronic truancy.

“We’re making a case-by-case determination,” Korionoff said. “We want to make sure that folks have their paperwork in order and don’t have any outstanding mitigating factors.”

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com