With exclusion day — the drop-dead day for having children properly vaccinated for school — less than a week away, parents who’ve avoided having their kids immunized can do so no longer. Come Feb. 21, children who lack proper immunization will be sent home from school.

Nor does the vaccination requirement apply just to public schools. Pretty much anyplace that cares for children outside their homes, from day-care facilities to private preschools to Head Start are expected to enforce the vaccination requirement.

That’s the law, but there’s a loophole in it large enough to shove an elementary school through, and Oregonians do that at an alarming rate. This state allows parents to skip their kids’ vaccinations for pretty much any reason they want, so much so that fewer Oregon children are vaccinated than in almost 40 other states. And, it’s a loophole parents in Deschutes County, particularly in Bend, use all too often.

Some parents have very good reasons, to be sure. Children with compromised immune systems can face a risk from vaccinations, and their doctors are likely to recommend that immunizations be avoided. State law allows for that.

It’s the nonmedical exemptions that pose a problem.

In Bend, the opt-out rate in at least 10 schools is high enough to put kids at risk for getting measles. Herd immunity — enough people vaccinated to help prevent disease, in this case, measles, from spreading to someone with a compromised immune system — is lacking at Westside Village, Amity Creek, Highland, Pine Ridge, Miller, Bear Creek, High Lakes, Juniper, Lava Ridge, Bend International and Realms schools in Bend, Sisters elementary and middle schools, Black Butte School in Camp Sherman and Tumalo Community School.

That means children with serious health problems are at greater risk for catching measles at those schools. Though it happens rarely today, measles can kill. In fact, before the advent of the measles vaccine in the mid 1960s, some 400 to 500 American children died of the disease each year.

All parents can assure that not only their kids, but the children around them, are safe and as healthy as possible. All they need do is see that everyone is properly vaccinated before the deadline.