120 Spokane Public School students unvaccinated for mumps ordered home by health district

The Spokane Regional Health District has ordered 120 unvaccinated Spokane Public Schools students home following additional mumps cases.

Twenty-seven Rogers High School students will need to stay away from school until Feb. 10. Sixteen Regal Elementary students will be out of school until Jan. 31.

Additionally, 15 students at Stevens Elementary and 18 at Balboa Elementary have been ordered out, along with 44 students at North Central High School. The health district hasn’t notified the district of when these students would be allowed back to school, said district Spokesman Kevin Morrison.

As of Friday, only 44 Spokane Public School district students had been ordered to stay home.

The order also applies to certain schools in the Mead School District and the East Valley School District.

Students must have received the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, known as the MMR vaccine, or have a blood test to prove that they are immune in order to stay in school. The order also applies to staff members at those schools.

Each school has a different start date for the exclusion order depending on when its first case of mumps was reported. Staff members at some of the schools have a different start date from students at the same school.

Morrison said the district will provide excluded students with a mix of online and take-home work to keep them caught up in their classes.

There are now 56 confirmed and probable cases of the mumps in Spokane County, according to the health district. Of those, 34 were vaccinated, 10 were not vaccinated and the vaccination status of the other 12 is unknown.

Most of those who are sick are under the age of 19, including nine children ages 2-9 and 31 children ages 10-19. There are 10 cases in people ages 20-29, four cases in ages 30-39 and two cases in people in their 40s.

Reporter Nina Culver contributed to this report.