Childcare vaccination changes
Approved early childhood education and care services (ECEC services) may ask parents to provide:
- an immunisation history statement when enrolling their child
- an updated immunisation history statement when their child passes the 2, 4, 6, 12, 18 months and 4 years vaccination milestones.
The immunisation history statement will show if a child is up-to-date with their scheduled vaccinations.
If the child is not up-to-date, services can choose to:
- refuse enrolment of the child
- cancel enrolment or refuse attendance of the child, or
- impose a condition on the child's enrolment or attendance.
Children who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons (e.g. medical contraindication) or who are on a recognised vaccination catch-up schedule are considered up to date and cannot be refused enrolment based on their immunisation status.
An immunisation history statement says whether a child is up to date with their vaccinations. This can be:
- an official record issued by the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR)
- a letter from a recognised immunisation provider (e.g. your GP or immunisation nurse)
The Personal Health Record (the 'red book') from Queensland Health is not acceptable proof of immunisation because it only contains handwritten updates.
Read more about accessing immunisation records.
These changes do not make immunisation mandatory, and do not force ECEC services to refuse enrolment or attendance of children whose immunisation status is not up to date.