Whether or not your child should be vaccinated is entirely up to you. And for many parents who can’t get their children the vaccine because they can’t get time off to take their children or because they don’t have health insurance and can’t afford it, these school programs may seem like a godsend. However, I’m grateful that parents are being notified and the decision is being left to them.

In light of what I just read, however, I’m not sure giving vaccines during school hours is the best approach:

New York City’s Health Department said nurses at schools in Brooklyn and Staten Island mistakenly gave the vaccine to two children whose parents hadn’t signed a consent form. The same thing happened Monday at an elementary school in the town of Oregon, Ohio, where a 7-year-old got the vaccine even though her mother had marked “no consent” on a form, then circled it to emphasize her point.

Wow! If I were the parents of one of these children, I would be livid. Luckily, no harm has come as a result, although one of the girls is epileptic and had to be hospitalized to ensure an allergic reaction did not take place.

Although these programs have good intentions, without parents present, there is too much room for error. Why not instead offer walk-in shots or shots by appointment on school sites, but make it mandatory that an adult must show up there to sign consent? Most moms I know — and even a few physicians — are concerned about the newness of the swine flu shot. So imagine if someone administered a shot to your child that you weren’t even sure you wanted him to have? Or worse, that you knew you didn’t want him to have?! Essentially, that’s what happened here.

Not to mention that for  young children, the experience of being pulled out of class, taken to the nurse’s office, and then being injected could be traumatic. In five years, I’ve never left my son’s side during doctor exams or vaccines, so I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving him on his own for this one. I still am undecided whether or not my son will get the shot, but if he does, it will be done by his pediatrician while I’m there to hold his hand.

What do you think of H1N1 shots in school? Leave a comment below!

-Dawn Papandrea