Nearly all of the schools, public and private, in the Renton School District are showing greater than 90 percent coverage for immunizations for last school year, according to King County Public Health.

The only school that did not send in a vaccination exemption report for the 2013-14 school year was the Northwest Free School, a private elementary school. An administrator for that school – with a class size of just three children – said that paperwork was forthcoming.

This year’s immunization coverage in Renton is looking even better, according to Randy Matheson, district spokesperson. The only school that reported less coverage last year was the district’s Homeschool Opportunities for Merging Education program or H.O.M.E. program. That school reported 50 to 70 percent immunization coverage for the 2013-14 school year.

“The numbers you saw were from the 2013-2014 school year and are improving this year, mainly due to better tracking of this information by the new office manager at the H.O.M.E. program,” said Matheson. “That being said, parents have many reasons to choose to, or not to immunize their children, including health, personal or religious reasons.”

District policy allows for exemptions from immunization requirements due to health, personal or religious reasons only as allowed for by state law.

Lara Randolph is a parent of two students in the H.O.M.E. program, who has a philosophical objection to getting her children vaccinated. She’s not convinced vaccines won’t cause more damage than the actual disease they’re inoculating.

“So my fear is not measles; my fear is the vaccination of the measles,” said Randolph. “I’m more afraid of that than the actual childhood disease. Because my children are not (immune-compromised) in any other way, a normal childhood disease is not scary to me.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the measles in its more serious effects can lead to ear infection, pneumonia, seizures, brain damage and even death.

Yet Randolph and another H.O.M.E. program mother, who wished not to be named, are fearful of the vaccine. Both say they have experienced adverse reactions to vaccines, either personally or with their children, and that makes up some of their objections. Neither of Randolph’s children have been vaccinated for any disease and one of the other mother’s three children are vaccinated against some diseases.

“We vaccinated as young parents and as we began to ask more questions and gather more information we backed off more and more until we came to the same conclusion that Lara has come to,” said the H.O.M.E parent.

She went on to describe her fear.

“So you most commonly hear in the media about the risk of death and encephalitis from the measles,” said the mom. “What you do not hear is that the measles vaccine also carries a risk of death and encephalitis.”

She points to numbers she’s found with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a voluntary reporting system maintained by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration to back up her claim. Anyone can submit reports to the VAERS Database and reports do not necessarily prove the adverse event was caused by a vaccine.

The mothers are also leery because of the existence of a federal court to settle vaccine claims. It’s called the Office of Special Masters and it is part of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

“If they (vaccines) are 100 percent safe why do we have a need to legally protect the people that manufacture, require and administer them,” said the H.O.M.E. program mom.

She’s tired of parents who support vaccine choice being labeled paranoid, superstitious, ignorant and lunatics. She said that she feels like her family has to stay underground to preserve the safety of her family.

“It’s really not any fun to sit around and wonder if someone is going to call Child Protective Services,” she said.

Randolph echoed her sentiments, “which is a real fear because there’s such a hysteria about not vaccinating people believe that you’re not taking care of your children, if you don’t vaccinate, which is like ridiculous.”

On its website, the CDC states that the risk of serious harm, or death from the measles vaccine is “extremely small.” Vaccinations also help create a “herd immunity” that helps prevent the disease from getting to patients who for medical reasons cannot receive the vaccination.

“Renton-area schools report an immunization rate of 90 percent from 2013-2014 for all but one school and while 90 percent is respectable there is still room for improvement,” said Dr. Callie Byrd, via email.

She is a pediatrician in Valley Medical’s Covington Clinic South and still urges everyone to speak to their health-care provider about making sure their immunizations are up to date.

“Communities with areas of unvaccinated or under-vaccinated individuals are at an increased risk for outbreaks of diseases that can be prevented with vaccines, as we have seen with the recent measles outbreak,” she said.

Byrd points to the U.S. government’s vaccination goals, Healthy People 2020, which strives for a 90 percent vaccination rate for children 19-35 month and a 95 percent vaccination rate for all children entering kindergarten.

Byrd reports that for each child vaccinated according to the recommended immunization schedule, 33,000 lives are saved, preventing 14 million cases of disease and reducing health care costs by $9.9 billion.

Check out the immunization coverage in your neighborhood here: http://publichealthinsider.com/2015/02/06/look-up-immunization-levels-in-your-neighborhood/