Key messages
- Immunisation is an authorised and permitted health service during the pandemic.
- Secondary schools work with their local council to facilitate delivery of the secondary school immunisation program to students at their school.
- Schools share student and parent/guardian contact details with local council to assist in the delivery of the program.
- Young people under 18 years old need parental consent for vaccination unless they are considered a 'mature minor'.
- The Victorian Government provides supporting resources to assist local council and schools to deliver the program.
COVID-19 impact
Immunisation is an authorised and permitted health during the pandemic. Local council immunisation services and secondary schools are continuing to work together to deliver the secondary school immunisation program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Relevant resources/advice for local council immunisation services include:
- COVID-19 update for local council immunisation services - pandemic impact on secondary school immunisation program.
- Resources for the Secondary school immunisation program are now available and have been updated to address the ongoing impact of the pandemic of program delivery.
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) update Victorian Immunisation Services provides guidance to immunisation services on service delivery adaptions from the Victorian Department of Health.
- Guiding principals for maintaining immunisation services during the issued by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).
Role of secondary schools
Refer to the Secondary school immunisation program - A guide for schools.
For more information, see Department of Education and Training Policy and Advisory Library - .
Authorisation to share contact details
The Public Health and Wellbeing Regulations authorises secondary schools to provide their local council with student and parent/guardian contact information for any student scheduled to receive a vaccination. This information assists local councils to follow-up parents/guardians of students with incomplete or missing consent cards.
Contact details must be used strictly for the purposes of delivering the secondary school immunisation program.
Councils can also issue reminders, notifications and information about the program. This may be done by SMS, email, phone call or mailed letter.
What schools need to do
There are two key steps for schools to action at the commencement of the school year:
1. Send a collection statement to parents/guardians
The collection statement is to inform them that their contact details will be transferred to local council unless they request otherwise. An example collection statement is available from the download section at the bottom of this page.
2. Transfer contact details data to local council
Instructions are available (in ‘data extraction instructions’ at the bottom of this page) for the following school software programs to extract relevant information to provide to local council:
- CASES21
- SAS2000
- PCSchool
- SchoolPRO2
- Synergetic
- TASS. web
- All other systems
Report issues
If your school software package is not listed, or you have problems with the instructions available for your software system, please refer to the instructions available in "All other systems".
If you encounter issues with the data extraction instructions available on this site and are unable to resolve them with your IT service providers and/or your school software system support contacts, please report the issue via email immunisation@health.vic.gov.au.
Consent for vaccination
Children and young people under 18 years of age usually require parent/guardian consent to be vaccinated.
What do schools need to do?
Support the distribution and collection of all vaccine consent forms and obtain completed forms from parents/guardians. Consent forms are provided to schools by local councils for schools to distribute to students in Year 7 and Year 10.
Consent without a parent/guardian
All consent must meet the criteria for valid . The law recognises that as children become older and more mature, they are more capable of making their own decisions about a wide range of issues including decisions about their healthcare and wellbeing. The law recognises that a young person may reach this stage before they are 18 years old. These young people are referred to as 'mature minors'.
There is no specific age when a young person may be deemed a mature minor. Determining whether a young person is a mature minor requires consideration of whether they have sufficient maturity to understand the nature and effect of a decision to be vaccinated. Relevant factors include:
- age
- level of maturity for their age
- understanding of the issues and consequences
- living arrangements (independence).
In a school setting this determination may be made by the school principal in accordance with the DET policy on Decision Making by Mature .
Support resources
The following resources have been developed to support councils and schools to work together and to equip schools with the tools and information they require to assist local councils in the delivery the secondary school immunisation program.
To access these resources click on the links below or go to the ‘Downloads’ or ‘Data extraction instructions’ sections at the bottom of this page.
Secondary School Immunisation Program - A guide for schools
A resource outlining roles, responsibilities and requirements in providing a successful secondary school immunisation program for schools and immunisation providers.
Secondary School Immunisation Program - Annual Agreement
The purpose of this agreement is to set shared expectations and acknowledge the roles and responsibilities between schools and local councils to deliver the Secondary School Immunisation Program.
Collection statement
A sample letter for schools and parents/guardians to understand the purpose of the collection statement.
Important information for Victorian secondary schools
A brief summary for Victorian secondary schools including annual steps, key dates and what information local councils require to deliver the secondary school immunisation program.
Sample Secondary school immunisation program newsletter item first term
A sample article for inclusion in the first term school newsletters to inform parents/guardians of Year 7 and Year 10 students of the secondary school immunisation program.
Sample newsletter article for students who missed school vaccinations due to COVID-19 pandemic
A sample article for parents/guardians of Year 8 and Year 11 students completing the immunisation program in the following year.
Catch up HPV vaccination for Year 8 students who missed the Year 7 immunisation program
A sample letter for councils to use to send to parents/guardians of Year 8 students completing the second dose of Gardasil®9 the following year.
Social media communications pack
Communications to support Victorian secondary schools, parents/guardians and local council immunisation providers on the importance of secondary school students receiving their catch up immunisations as soon as possible to reduce the incidence of vaccine preventable disease and to ensure that they stay healthy and well.
School software instructions for sharing information with councils
Instructions on using common school software programs to extract relevant student contact information to provide to local council for the purposes of delivering the secondary school immunisation program, a data exporter and an excel template for data compilation.
Data extraction instructions
Downloads
Reviewed 10 January 2022