Vaccination Exemption for School Age Children

64POSTS

7 years ago

Hi,

Does anyone have any information regarding vaccination exemption protocols for school age children in Puerto Rico? Particularly doctors or lawyers on the south side of the island (Ponce). We're still without landlines or internet service in my barrio so my reply may be slow.

Thanks

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livinginpr Member

3POSTS

7 years ago

Hi!

The Dept of health website has a medical and religious exemption form but not a personal or philosophical one. The form must be notarized and instructions are on the form as well and it鈥檚 entirely in Spanish.聽 I looked in to this last year.

Here鈥檚 the link to the form

1 member reacted to this post

sandrarduncan Serial expat

487POSTS

7 years ago

Good luck. Its all nonsense. We homeschool to avoid the bs. Example they wantes our sons original birth certificate as well as gos original social secuity card.聽 I unde2the birth certificate however social card is bs.聽 First of all what if somepne is an illegal immigrant. Children should have to provide this to get an education.聽聽Next thing is we had our child in a scool for 6 weeks and pull him out.聽 Schools are very dirty.聽 Unsanity practices. Yuck yuck in 6 weeks my child who has never been ill got extremely sick twice and each time is lasted more then a week聽
Never never again will he go to a school here on the island

1 member reacted to this post

LOLPuertoRico Active member

64POSTS

7 years ago

Thanks a ton, guys! I searched for that exemption form forever and never could find it. I suppose searching in English didn't help my cause much, hehe.聽

We have home-schooled all her life using Time4Learning (LOVE them). I think it is extremely important to home-school children for at least the first nine or ten years. I've read that kids become who they are going to be between the ages of seven and ten. I am really uncomfortable sending kids younger than that off to school where they are going to be strongly influenced, on a daily basis, by other adults/teachers and children who may not share the values I try to instill in my child.

1 member reacted to this post

rambla Active member

51POSTS

7 years ago

In all fairness, I need to mention that not ALL public schools in Puerto Rico are dirty with unsanitary practices. In my experience, I have never encountered that issue. Although obviously there are always exceptions which is what this person above experienced.

Also, it is very common for children to randomly get sick during the school season. Regardless, of how healthy they are. This is something I also went through with my own child. When they went to daycare they hardly ever picked up anything from the other kids. However, once they started pre-k they were often sick and for long periods of time.

It's not a Puerto Rico island issue in the same way it's not a stateside issue. It's just the luck of the draw with school aged children. No matter how clean a school is airborne germs really don鈥檛 give a damn.

1 member reacted to this post

sandrarduncan Serial expat

487POSTS

7 years ago

Soeey i have to disagree. I worked in 3 different schools in the states and i can tell you that its gross here. I know plenty of people on the island and they all agree with me.聽聽Dont send your child to school聽 here. The education here ia horrible as well wvwn most private schools
As a person that worked in education in yue states i can tell you its subpar here. Why Do you think so many people here join the military,聽 due to the lack of education,聽 no job opportunities.聽聽You keep the people where they have less choices and you see them joining the military. Its designed here this way.

sontek Active member

27POSTS

7 years ago

@sandrardunc聽 Not sure what schools you are visiting, but we've had nothing but a great experience with the schools our children are attending and the ones we toured before making a decision.

I'm sure you can find bad schools here just like anywhere in the mainland, but we've been extremely happy with what we've found here.聽

We are doing private here and we did public in the mainland, so maybe that is why we've experienced such wonderful schools?

Marion-Olga Contributor

147POSTS

7 years ago

sandrarduncan wrote:
Good luck. Its all nonsense. We homeschool to avoid the bs. Example they wantes our sons original birth certificate as well as gos original social secuity card.聽 I unde2the birth certificate however social card is bs.聽 First of all what if somepne is an illegal immigrant. Children should have to provide this to get an education.聽聽Next thing is we had our child in a scool for 6 weeks and pull him out.聽 Schools are very dirty.聽 Unsanity practices. Yuck yuck in 6 weeks my child who has never been ill got extremely sick twice and each time is lasted more then a week聽
Never never again will he go to a school here on the island

We moved from Germany to PR when our daughter was 7. She went to a public school in PR and first time I saw the school I was shocked because the classroom and school looked so poor....
besides that our child was never really sick in 9 years...