State urges parents of incoming 2025-26 seventh-graders to schedule well-child visits

Hawaiʻi Department of Health officials are encouraging parents of incoming seventh-grade students for the 2025-26 academic year to schedule a well-child visit as soon as possible.

Children undergo significant physical, emotional and social change as they approach adolescence.

Ensuring their health and well-being with a well-child visit that includes a comprehensive physical exam is important as your keiki prepares to make the transition from elementary to middle school.

It also includes making sure your children are current with immunizations, which safeguard and protect them from disease outbreaks in schools, ultimately contributing to their overall health.

This is why Hawai‘i law requires all seventh-grade students to submit official documentation to their school indicating they received the required vaccinations and had a physical exam before the first day of school.

Vaccines help protect children from serious diseases.

Many children have not received vaccines since kindergarten, meaning some of the protection they had when they started school has declined. Additionally, an incoming seventh-grader is now old enough to receive additional vaccines to prevent other serious diseases.

Before the first day of the 2025-26 school year, all seventh-grade students must provide official documentation of having received these vaccines:

• Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.
• Meningococcal conjugate.
• Human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Vaccines can protect children from the following diseases:

Tetanus

• Tetanus enters the body through cuts or wounds. It causes painful stiffening of the muscles. It can lead to serious health problems, including being unable to open the mouth, having trouble swallowing and breathing or death. The most recent case of tetanus in Hawaiʻi was reported in 2019.

Diphtheria

• Diphtheria is spread person-to-person through direct contact with respiratory body fluids. It can cause difficulty breathing, heart failure, paralysis or death. No cases of diphtheria have been reported in Hawai‘i during the past 10 years.

Pertussis, also known as whooping cough

• Pertussis is a respiratory illness spread easily through the air. It can cause uncontrollable, violent coughing that makes it hard to breathe, eat or drink. Three cases were identified in 2023 in Hawai‘i, including one that resulted in the death of a young child. The number of reported cases jumped to 95 in 2024, also including the death of another young child.

Meningococcus

• Meningococcus is a bacteria that can cause meningitis through direct contact with respiratory body fluids. Infection is rare, but more common in group settings such as college dorms and with certain international travel. One case was reported last year in Hawaiʻi. Infection can quickly cause serious complications including death. Most recover; however, 1 in 5 people can be left with permanent disabilities. Protection from vaccination decreases with time and a booster is recommended at age 16. Many colleges require vaccination.

Human Papillomavirus, or HPV

• Two of the most transmissible human papillomavirus strains spread through direct skin-to-skin contact, are also the most likely to cause cancer of the mouth, throat, cervix and other areas of the body. Vaccination can prevent these and other HPV strains. Eighty-five percent of people who are not vaccinated will get at least one strain of HPV at some point in their lives. People must get vaccinated before exposure to protect against cancers caused by HPV, even if the exposure is decades in the future. The state Health Department encourages all children to get two doses of HPV vaccine between age 9 years old and when they enter seventh grade.

Children new to Hawaiʻi schools must also complete a tuberculosis clearance form with their health care provider.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children and youth have a well-child visit with their health care provider at least once a year.

Well-child visits allow health care providers to monitor a child’s growth and development while addressing physical activity, nutrition, health concerns and behaviors.

The Hawaiʻi Department of Health encourages parents to contact their children’s health care provider for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Assistance with connecting to a health care provider is available by calling Aloha United Way at 211.

Click here for additional information about Hawai‘i’s school health requirements