Home Visits Deliver Vaccination Message

There are 30 regional pupil personnel workers and 20 school-based workers assigned to track down the students. Telephone numbers and addresses in school records are often wrong or out of date.

Out of the five homes Kaplan and Acevedo visited one day last week, no one answered at four. They went like the visit to an apartment in the 1900 block of Fox Street in Adelphi.

"I stand to the side of the door," Kaplan said before he knocked. "A predecessor said, 'Don't stand in front of the door, because you never know what's coming out at you.' "

He knocked. No response. He put his ear up to the door, listening. A television was on, but the sound might have been coming from a neighboring apartment.

"I hear something," he said and knocked again. Again, nothing.

"Many times, they're afraid to open the door," he said. Then he slid his business card under the door with a note asking the family to call him. Kaplan and Acevedo left.

That was his second stop. A carpenter was at work at the first home he visited but said the family wasn't around. At his fourth stop, Kaplan learned that the family had moved three months ago. At the fifth, no one answered the door.

The lack of success did not discourage Kaplan, a 35-year veteran of the school system.

"Look, we need these kids back. That's the bottom line," he said.

He explained what kept him going: "Occasionally, whether you're a classroom teacher, a principal, you know when you've connected. You know when it's appreciated, and that's a good feeling."

He got a good feeling from Kevin's mother. She said she wanted her son to go back to school.

"Can you show her what kind of vaccinations he needs?" Acevedo asked Kaplan.