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Public Health

Childhood Immunizations

Childhood Immunizations

Immunizations (also known as vaccines) are one of the most effective means available for protecting the health of your child and the health of our community. Some immunizations are also required by law for children in attendance at public and private schools, preschools, childcare facilities, and Head Start programs in Oregon. With measles spreading in Oregon, it is especially important to get your child immunized to keep them safe and prevent them from being excluded from school.  

Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule by Age
Frequently Asked Questions About Immunizations and Vaccines

Where to Get Childhood Immunizations

If your child has a primary care provider, schedule an appointment with them for immunizations. If they don’t have health insurance or a primary care provider, schedule an appointment at a Clackamas County Health Center or Neighborhood Health Centers. Immunizations are also available at school based health centers. Affordable options are available for people who are uninsured or underinsured.

Locations and contact information in multiple languages

Clackamas County Health Centers and Neighborhood Health Centers

Clackamas County School Based Health Centers

Uniting for Ukraine
Please contact Clackamas County Public Health for free, fast, confidential services to meet the U for U requirements. Call 503-655-8411

Oregon Immunization Requirements

Immunizations are required by law for children in attendance at public and private schools, preschools, childcare facilities, and Head Start programs in Oregon. This school year, all children who are not up-to-date or complete on their immunizations and have not submitted a medical or non-medical exemption will be excluded from their school or child care facility starting February 21, 2024.  

For parents
For schools/childcare facilities

Vaccine Information from the CDC

Get Your Records

Need immunization records?  If you or your child received immunizations at a Clackamas County Health Center call 503-650-3195.  All others who received immunizations in Oregon should visit the Oregon Health Authority. The CDC has advice on locating immunization records from elsewhere in the United States. 

Clackamas County and Oregon Immunization Data

Clackamas County Immunization Rates
OHA Immunization Rates
Public Health Impact Paper

Vaccines for Respiratory Illnesses

Vaccines can help protect you and your child from illnesses like COVID-19 and the flu. They provide a safe and reliable way to build your body’s protection against these respiratory diseases.  

Why should my child get the flu and COVID-19 vaccines?

  • I want to protect my child and our family
  • I want to protect the people around us, like neighbors and classmates
  • I want to lower my child’s risk of complications like pneumonia or Long Covid  
  • When a disease starts going around, I want to leave doctor’s appointments and medications available for people who are most sick
  • It would be hard for me to take time off work if my child got sick 

It is important to get updated vaccines when they are released because the viruses that cause flu and COVID-19 both change quickly. Updated vaccines are designed to offer better protection against the versions of the virus that are in current circulation. They help boost our bodies’ immunity against flu and COVID-19, which can wane over time. 

 

About COVID-19 Vaccines

About Influenza (Flu) Vaccines

  • The flu shot is the best way to prevent the flu. The CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against flu viruses.  
  • The flu vaccine is safe, and is recommended for everyone 6 months of age and older.  
  • Flu vaccine does not cause the flu because the virus used is dead or weakened so it cannot make you ill. Fewer than 1% of people develop flu-like symptoms, such as mild fever and muscle aches, after vaccination. These side effects are not the same as having the actual disease.
  • The more people vaccinated prior to the arrival of the flu, the lower the risk to our community, especially those most vulnerable to illness.    
Find flu and COVID-19 vaccines at vaccines.gov

Frequently asked questions about immunization and vaccines

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Vaccines are one of the most effective and successful tools to prevent disease, illness, and premature death from infectious diseases.

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Immunizing individuals helps to protect the health of the community, especially those who cannot be immunized such as infants and children too young to be vaccinated or certain people who cannot receive vaccines for medical reasons.

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Vaccines prevent deadly diseases, and the benefits of getting immunizations are much greater than the unlikely possible side effects for all children.

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Millions of individuals safely receive vaccines each year. The U.S. has a long-standing vaccine safety system that monitors vaccines and ensures they are safe, and there is no evidence to suggest that vaccines threaten a long, healthy life.

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As a condition of attending any school in Oregon, all children are required to be immunized against 11 vaccine-preventable diseases, including: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis A and B, and haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).

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For a child to be exempt from all or part of the immunization requirements, a parent or guardian of a child enrolled in a public, private, or charter school must provide one of the following an Oregon Certificate of Immunization Status, and if it applies, one of the following:

  • Documentation that a child should be exempted because the child has a medical condition that puts them at-risk of harm; or
  • A certificate to decline one or more immunizations for non-medical purposes

Learn more about the two types of exemptions: medical and non-medical

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For more than 50 years, immunization has saved more than a billion lives and prevented countless illnesses and disabilities in the United States. Vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough, are still a threat. They continue to infect U.S. children, resulting in hospitalizations and deaths every year.

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No. The viruses and bacteria that cause illness and death still exist and can be passed on to those who are not protected by vaccines. In a time when people can travel across the globe in just one day, it’s not hard to see just how easily diseases can travel, too.

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Yes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends vaccinations throughout your life to protect against many infections. When you skip vaccines, you leave yourself vulnerable to illnesses such as shingles, pneumococcal disease, influenza, and HPV and hepatitis B, both leading causes of cancer. You also put others around you at risk by transmitting infections to others who choose not to vaccinate or cannot receive immunizations for age or medical reasons.

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Vaccines are an important part of your overall health. Like eating healthy foods, exercising, and getting regular check-ups, vaccines play a vital role in keeping you healthy. Vaccines are one of the most convenient and safest preventive care measures available. Experts recommend a healthy diet and exercise most days, whereas vaccines are typically only needed one time per year.

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Vaccination can mean the difference between life and death. Vaccine-preventable infections are dangerous. Every year, approximately 50,000 US adults die from vaccine-preventable diseases in the US.

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The US has the best post-licensure surveillance system in the world making vaccines extremely safe. There is extraordinarily strong data from many different medical investigators all pointing to the safety of vaccines. In fact, vaccines are among the safest products in all of medicine.

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No. Vaccines will not give you the disease they are designed to prevent. Some vaccines contain “killed” virus, and it is impossible to get the disease from them. Others have live, but weakened, viruses designed to ensure that you cannot catch the disease.

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No. Young and healthy people can get very sick, too. Infants and the elderly are at a greater risk for serious infections and complications in many cases, but vaccine-preventable diseases can strike anyone. If you’re healthy, getting vaccinated can help you stay that way.

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Vaccine-preventable diseases are expensive. An average influenza illness can last up to 15 days, typically with five or six missed work or school days. Adults who get hepatitis A lose an average of one month of work.

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When you get sick, your children, grandchildren and parents are at risk, too. A vaccine-preventable disease that might make you sick for a week or two could prove deadly for your children, grandchildren, or parents if it spreads to them. When you get vaccinated, you’re protecting yourself and your family. For example, adults are the most common source of pertussis (whooping cough) infection in infants, which can be deadly in infants. In 2010 alone, 25 US infants died from whooping cough.

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Your family and coworkers need you. In the US each year, millions of adults get sick from vaccine-preventable diseases, causing them to miss work and leaving them unable to care for those who depend on them, including their children and/or aging parents.

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