Is your kid missing vaccines? Seattle Schools is offering one more free clinic

Michael Anthony drove his 13-year-old daughter Aunna all the way from Tacoma to south Seattle to get a chicken pox shot.

“We thought she had got them, but she didn’t,” Anthony explained, “so the school put us on notice to say, ‘Hey, if she don’t get this shot, she can’t come back to school.’”

Aunna was among about half a dozen kids lined up with their parents in the hallway of Aki Kurose Middle School on Monday morning waiting for vaccines. It’s one of the free immunization clinics being held by Seattle Public Schools for kids who are behind on their shots.

Starting January 8, kids whose vaccines are out of date won’t be allowed back to school.

In mid-December, about 2,200 Seattle school kids were told they wouldn’t be allowed back in January unless they got their shots.

Most of the kids at Monday's clinic were missing just one or two vaccines. For some, like Aunna, it had fallen through the cracks. Others recently moved to Washington from other states or countries and were trying to catch up on immunizations.

Anthony said the free clinic was the best option for him and his daughter. Otherwise, they would have had to “make another doctor’s appointment, pay out of pocket, do it that way,” he said, “so, yeah, today was real worth it.”

Seattle Public Schools will be holding one more free clinic on Friday morning at the Seattle World School in the Central District.