Public health officials in the state Department of Human Services remind parents to be sure that children have all their shots so they will not be sent home from school on exclusion day.

On Wednesday, children whose school or day care records show they are missing shots and who do not have an appropriate medical or religious exemption will be sent home. Children will not be allowed to return until their immunization records are updated.

Last year, a record 44,269 exclusion orders were issued in Oregon. Lorraine Duncan, immunization program manager in DHS, attributes the high number to a prior temporary suspension of the tetanus-diphtheria and chickenpox requirement following a national vaccine shortage.

"Last year, 91 percent of children had complete immunization records," Duncan said. "We believe we can do better this year."

Duncan said that about 44,000 letters have been sent to parents throughout the state, informing them that their children are lacking shots. School exclusion applies to all public and private schools, pre-schools, Head Start and certified day care facilities.

Parents seeking immunizations for their children should contact their private provider, Benton County Health Department at 766-6835 or Oregon SafeNet at 800-723-3638.

"Since maintaining a vacuum is expensive, most CVD process chambers are small," Chang said. "The advantage of CBD over CVD is very significant for large-area devices such as solar cells and computer displays, and could lead to larger, less expensive displays and other products."

Chang's research and educational efforts benefit from collaboration with other OSU faculty in engineering and chemistry and employs the Multiscale Materials and Devices technology being developed at OSU.

— Gazette-Times