(20 ILCS 2310/2310-255) (was 20 ILCS 2310/55.75)

Sec. 2310-255. Immunization outreach programs.

(a) The Illinois General Assembly finds and declares the following:

(1) There is a growing number of 2-year-old children who have not received the necessary childhood immunizations to prevent communicable diseases.

(2) The reasons these children do not receive immunizations are many and varied. These reasons include, but are not limited to, the following:

(A) Their parents live in poverty and do not have access to insurance coverage for health care and immunizations.

(B) Their parents come from non-English speaking cultures where the importance of early childhood immunizations has not been emphasized.

(C) Their parents do not receive adequate referral to immunization programs or do not have access to public immunization programs through other public assistance services.

(3) The percentage of fully immunized African-American and Hispanic 2-year-old children is significantly less than that for Whites.

(4) The ages of concern that remain are infancy and preschool, especially for those children at high risk because of a medical condition or because of social and environmental factors.

(5) Ensuring protective levels of immunization against communicable disease for these children is the most historically proven cost-effective preventive measure available to public health agencies.

(6) It is the intent of the General Assembly to establish an immunization outreach program to respond to this problem.

(b) The Department, in cooperation with county, multiple county, and municipal health departments, may establish permanent, temporary, or mobile sites for immunizing children or referring parents to other programs that provide immunizations and comprehensive health services. These sites may include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) Public places where parents of children at high risk of remaining unimmunized reside, shop, worship, or recreate.

(2) School grounds, either during regular hours, evening hours, or on weekends.

(3) Places on or adjacent to sites of public or community-based agencies or programs that either provide or refer persons to public assistance programs or services.

(c) Outreach programs shall, to the extent feasible, include referral components intended to link immunized children with available public or private primary care providers to increase access to continuing pediatric care including subsequent immunization services.

(d) The population to be targeted by the programs shall include children who do not receive immunizations through private third-party sources or other public sources with priority given to infants and children from birth up to age 3. Outreach programs shall provide information to the families of children being immunized about possible reactions to the vaccine and about follow-up referral sources.

(Source: P.A. 91-239, eff. 1-1-00.)