Back to school.

Time comes with backpacks and pencils, but it also means making sure your child has the required vaccines.

This week, the students at Newcomer Academy in Louisville received some help from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making sure they're back to school ready.

The CDC director stopped by the school to check up on a program that gives immigrant students a shot at a better school year.

Details in tonight's look at medical news.

Yeah, I'm in Louisville today on a back to school tour reminding families all across the country to make sure their kiddos are up to date on their routine vaccinations.

So we want to make sure our folks are getting the best defense they can against things like measles and polio and chickenpox.

And is a great success story here in Jefferson County, where they're partnering with the schools and public health together to make sure that kiddos are vaccinated.

Think about the back.

Oh, you did Good job.

Job didn't hurt at all.

Children are our future.

If Kentucky wants to have a bright future, then we need to recognize the impact that addressing physical health has on that future.

And so we have children from all over the world.

At this school, there's over 120 languages spoken in Jeeps.

And this school has a large representation of that number.

And so we have to realize children that are coming to us are coming from situations that weren't necessarily good situations.

So we have children come to this district and spend their life in a refugee camp where they don't have access to vaccines at all.

And we have children from lots of different circumstances and backgrounds.

There are vulnerable people in every community.

We we really needed to learn that lesson from COVID.

But there's people out there around us every day who are on chemotherapy who are on immunosuppressive drugs, who have have challenging illnesses.

And so protecting our kids against those illnesses also protects the community.

All right.

It wasn't bad.

Well, it was great to be here in Louisville to see this wonderful partnership.

I do think it's a model for other places.

I certainly as I travel around the country, I've seen lots of very unique and individualized partnerships.

I think this is one that's tailored to what the community here needs, which I think is wonderful.

But I also think it's a teachable model for other places throughout the country.

People in this day and age really haven't seen some of these catastrophic illnesses that, like my grandparents, experienced.

And so they really don't necessarily understand the impact that had on children.

Vaccines are one of the biggest things that helped children get through childhood, which is not the case in years past.

And so they're vitally important.

Not only is it important for life, for life, for keeping the kids healthy, but if kids are sick, they're not in school.

And if they're not in school, they're not learning.

And that sounds very basic, but it's very true.

If we want to address chronic absenteeism in the country, then we need to look at all the factors that make kids absent.

And health is an integral part of that.

Right now is a great time to focus on those routine vaccines like measles and polio chickenpox in a couple of weeks as we get into fall and winter, you want to make sure you're getting that updated COVID shot, that updated flu shot.

We want to stay healthy as we can, and vaccines provide that best defense that we can against a serious illness.

Jefferson County Public Schools chose to budget for district wide health services after federal funding ended last school year.

The district will employ 15 nurse practitioners to help the district's students with health care needs.