07 Aug 2026 Remind Families About Back-to-School Vaccines

The first day of school is right around the corner, and we want to help you ensure your patients are up to date on their school-required immunizations.  

Our back-to-school webpage offers tools and reminders to support your vaccination efforts. You’ll find information on:   

• Reviewing international immunization records
• Routine vaccine timing for school-aged children
• School vaccine requirements
• Influenza and COVID-19
• Other recommended vaccines for adolescents 

Reminder and Recall Strategies:  

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers steps to identify overdue patients, including the following:

• Decide on an age range to focus on if it is not feasible to contact all patients.
• Run an IIS query for all patients in your selected age range who are 30+ days behind on vaccination.
• Run the same query in the EHR. If you are unsure whether your EHR system has this capability, check with your EHR vendor or bioinformatics team.

They also suggest strategies for reminder or recall, such as: 

• Social media
• Reminder postcards and letters that can be printed and mailed
• Message reminders via patient portals
• Text messages, phone calls, and auto-dialers

Resources:

• Vaccine Facts webpage
• Talking with Vaccine Hesitant Parents webpage
• Philadelphia School District: School Immunization Requirements & Upcoming Vaccine Events 
• Immunization Training Videos