Home Visits Deliver Vaccination Message

"One hepatitis B," Kaplan said, passing her a leaflet in Spanish. "And he needs two varicella, which is chickenpox. We're trying to get consent from the parent to have him go back to school on April 5 and get his immunizations."

Acevedo interpreted the message. "The mother wants him to finish school, but Kevin does not want to go back to school, and he sees this as an excuse," Acevedo told Kaplan.

Kevin, a freshman, listened impassively on the couch. His mother, originally from Puerto Rico, explained that he sometimes did construction work with his father but that most of the time he sat around the house doing nothing. Kevin didn't dispute that.

"We want Kevin back in school," Kaplan said to Acevedo. "I'd like to have Mom sign a consent form to allow Kevin to have transport and be immunized by the Health Department." He passed the mother a release form allowing the school system to pick him up and take him to a clinic.

"She said she thinks that he already has those vaccinations," Acevedo said.

"There's no indication of that," Kaplan said. "I looked at it with the school nurse this morning. In the meantime, we should have this just in case."

"When I got the shots, I wasn't going to school at the time," Kevin said, speaking in English.

"We want you to come back to school on April 5," Kaplan said to Kevin, then turned back to his mother: "Once he has the shots, he will be readmitted to school the same day, and he won't be sitting here all day."

"Kevin, is there anything preventing you from going back to school?" Kaplan asked. "Any bad blood?"

"No."

"How were your grades before you left school?"

"They weren't too good; they weren't too bad. I started messing up at the end, getting bad grades."

Acevedo, who was still talking with Kevin's mother, broke in: "She said, 'He can do it; he just doesn't try hard enough.' "

"We're going to be here if you don't come back," Acevedo told Kevin.

"We don't have disposable students," Kaplan said.

Kevin's mother smiled as Kaplan stood up to leave.

"Now we've got to try to kick butt and try to get some other kid back in school," he said.