Senate Bill S1201A

                                BILL NUMBER:S1201A

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the public health law, in relation to exempting non-resident
students at community colleges from the requirement of maintaining
measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and meningococcal meningitis records

PURPOSE:
This bill would exempt nonresident students at community colleges from
certain immunization requirements.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill would add a new subdivision 14 to Section 2165
of the Public Health Law to exempt nonresident students at community
colleges from this section of law.

Section two of this bill would add a new subdivision 7 to Section 2167
of the Public Health Law to exempt nonresident students at community
colleges from this section of law.

Section three amends paragraph b of subdivision 1 of section 2165 of
the Public Health Law to exclude a graduate of a public, private or
parochial secondary school located in New York from the definition of
the term "student".

              

Section four provides for an immediate effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:
During the first six months of 1989, 81% of reported cases of measles
in New York State occurred in 12 outbreaks in post-secondary
institutions. These outbreaks resulted from inadequate immunization
or vaccine failure in some students coupled with the close contact in
living and study quarters inherent in the college setting. The
outbreaks resulted in the enactment of Public Health Law (PHL)
Section 2165 (effective August 1, 1990) that mandated measles, mumps
and rubella immunizations for all full-time (taking 12 or more
college credits) college students born on or after January 1, 1957.
Six months later, this section required all full-time and part-time
(taking 6-11 college credits) college students to comply, regardless
of campus residency status.

Section 2165 requires that all students provide documentation of
immunity against measles, mumps, and rubella (2 doses of live measles
vaccine, the first dose given on or after the 1st birthday, the
second given on or after 15 months); live vaccine must have been
given on or after 1/11/68 or evidence of immunity or evidence from
physician that person has had the disease; medical and religious
exemptions are recognized. PHL Section 2167 was enacted on August 15,
2003. This section requires all students be made aware of information
about meningococcal disease and vaccination. It also requires that
all students provide either proof of immunization to meningitis or
submission of a signed waiver stating that the signee understands the
risks and chooses not to receive the vaccine.


There is some belief by the academic community that these sections of
the Public Health Law are ineffective as they apply to colleges and
universities because of the numerous situations that compromise the
integrity of the "safety net" established by them. Public community
colleges, in particular, are not adequately served, based on
significantly different circumstances found between most community
college students, who commute daily between home, campus, and work,
and their 4-year college and university counterparts who are, for the
most part, based in on-campus residences. This difference has placed
an undue burden on public community colleges, community college
students, and their families. The vast majority of community college
students are commuters who live and work in every part of their
communities. They present no greater risk to the public health than
anyone else, as they do not tend to live and study in the kind of
concentrated environments found on traditional residential campuses
and, therefore, present no more risk to the health of the community
than any other person (faculty, staff, program participant, or
visitor) found on a community college campus. No other community
college constituency is required to meet the conditions
of these PHL sections. In fact, the majority of faculty and
staff serving New York's community colleges, all of whom are not
required to comply with this "protection", were born after the 1/1/57
mandated in the law for students.

Many community colleges conduct on-campus study programs with current
high school students, like "Upward Bound" and "STEP." As these
students are not "enrolled", they are not required to comply with
this law. Medical and religious exemptions are recognized so,
regardless of compliance with the law, not all students will be
immunized, leaving every campus with certain gaps in protection.
Since 1990, every New York State kindergartner has been required by
law to have been vaccinated, or otherwise declared immune. This
requirement should render compliance through the 2003 PHL Section
2167 mute as no student should have been allowed into a public school
without such documentation.

Many community college students attend college one or two classes at a
time, which often places them below the part-time student (6 credit
hours) threshold. These students are not required to comply. The cost
to administrate this program, in terms of additional staffing;
increased paperwork and filing; critical student communications;
lost instructional time; and added counseling loads, is prohibitive,
reaching into the tens of thousands of dollars each year.
Accordingly, this proposal would exempt nonresident students at
community colleges from the requirements in PHL Sections 2165 and 2167,
based on key and significant differences in overall living conditions
from their 4-year and university counterparts, that renders these
sections ineffective for the community colleges.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2010: S.7799 - Health Committee
2010: A.10989 - Referred to the Assembly Health Committee

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:


Immediate.