Overview of policies affecting vaccine use in child day care.

Vaccination policies for preschool-age children, including those in child day care, have undergone frequent changes within the past several years in response to the development of new vaccines (DTaP, Hib conjugate vaccines), the changing epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases (measles), and the establishment of new objectives for the control and elimination of vaccine-preventable diseases (Hib, hepatitis B). The acquisition and spread of vaccine-preventable diseases can be minimized in child day-care settings by vaccinating all children, establishing a continuing system by which all children remain fully vaccinated on schedule, providing educational materials to parents about the recommended schedule of routine childhood vaccines, and implementing new recommendations for vaccine use.