South Carolina Makes it Easier for Parents to Get Immunization Records for Schools
Like other states, South Carolina requires K-12 students to show proof of vaccination by obtaining a physician-signed certificate from a doctor. Since the process of obtaining this official certificate presented challenges for some families, the South Carolina Department of Public Health created a configurable system that breaks down barriers for parents by offering a dynamic, flexible, user friendly, and secure online tool to download a valid certificate from home.
Here’s how they did it – and why this first-ever option to download grade-level-specific immunization certificates for official use is so important for South Carolina students and families.
South Carolina has long maintained a portal called the State Immunization Online Network (SIMON), which has allowed individuals to access their personal vaccination records or those of their children. While this option helped South Carolinians better understand what vaccinations they received over their lifetime, the South Carolina Personal Immunization Record (DPH form 4025) that can be downloaded from this portal cannot be used as a valid certificate to meet school vaccination requirements. Until recently, the only option parents had to obtain an official certificate was to visit their child’s healthcare provider to obtain a physician’s signature on the South Carolina Certificate of Immunization (DPH form 4024), which is the only accepted form for attendance to school and childcare.
This in-person requirement created barriers for some families, particularly ones who experience transportation and healthcare access challenges. To make it easier for parents, the South Carolina Department of Public Health wanted to create a solution that allows individuals to download and print a valid Certificate of Immunization without having to visit a pediatrician or other healthcare provider.
This required technical expertise to ensure that the portal was user-friendly, protected personally identifiable information, and provided accurate information according to a child’s immunization history and different grade-level requirements. The Department of Public Health partnered with InductiveHealth/Envision to expand the functionality of SIMON to do just that.
Over 8 months, the teams worked together to make a system that was secure and convenient. Importantly, the engineers building this new capability wanted to create a configurable system that reflects different requirements for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Whereas a handful of states have previously created systems that allowed individuals to print vaccination records from a static page, South Carolina’s new system is the first-of-its kind because it dynamically reflects the grade-specific requirements each student must meet to be considered “up-to-date” on their immunizations. Therefore, one could not simply print out a valid certificate that was previously valid for one grade level and present it as valid for another because later grades have additional requirements.
Not only does this help parents access the South Carolina Certificate of Immunization quickly, saving them a trip to a doctor’s office, but the flexibility and configurability is vital for the South Carolina Department of Health, which can easily update the back end of the system as vaccination guidelines change. By being in control of their own system, state public health officials can update SIMON without needing to ask InductiveHealth/Envision to add new vaccination codes.
Finally, families can be confident their personal immunization information is secure and protected. To access one’s personal records, individuals must have specific data elements aligned with the SIMON system. By requiring multifactor authentication, only those entitled to view and print their personal information can access it.
Since this new capability launched on August 1, 2025, the results have been astounding. SIMON has seen a 25% increase in traffic month over month, suggesting patients, parents, and legal guardians are taking advantage of this important option to search for school certificates, which are nested in the public portal. As of November 30, 2025, the portal received a combined total of 56,223 access attempts to search for vaccine records and school certificates. Of these:
• 24,301 were made by parents
• 31,756 by patients
• 166 by legal guardians
Moreover, the system is working as designed to keep personal information secure: unauthorized attempts to access immunization records have been blocked, and the South Carolina SIMON Helpdesk has helped families having difficulty logging in successfully access the system.
Looking forward, this first-of-its-kind portal is a gamechanger for families. It also offers an important model for states across the country to emulate as they work to make it easier for parents and students to access valid and official vaccination records from the convenience of home.