Albany has toughened the requirements for vaccinating school students, starting with those attending kindergarten.
Parents have to provide proof of vaccinations within the first two weeks of school. There were earlier rules which allowed some lag time into first grade. As of Tuesday, that has changed.
"People hear a lot of noise about potential negative effects of vaccines but they don't really see the effects of the serious diseases that these vaccines prevent," said Erie County Health Commissioner Doctor Gale Burstein.
"But, I can tell you that I have worked in Africa and I've seen pretty much all of these vaccine preventable diseases and I would not want any children to suffer any of them."
Governor Andrew Cuomo is pondering a bill approved in the Legislature to add to the requirements with a meningitis shot requirement for seventh and 12th grades.
Already required are shots for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio.
