Long Island district bars Wild Child Pediatric patients while parents fight exclusion

At least one Long Island school district has barred students who were patients of a former nurse practitioner the state has charged with falsifying vaccination records, as parents across the Island fight steps to exclude their children.

The exclusions stem from a state investigation of the vaccination records of children who were patients of former Amityville nurse Julie DeVuono and her practice, Wild Child Pediatrics.

The state Health Department last month voided measles, mumps, diphtheria and other vaccination records of 133 Long Island children, and one from Orange County, because it said DeVuono falsified them. She already admitted selling more than $1.2 million in fake COVID-19 vaccine cards as part of a criminal case.

The state sent subpoenas to more than 100 school districts seeking childhood vaccination records of about 750 children as it investigates the extent of DeVuono’s alleged fraud

In some cases, parents have filed petitions to quash subpoenas. But the parent of two students who were excluded from Plainedge schools said he obtained blood tests to show his children received some of the required vaccines and turned over paper records from Wild Child that date back years. He said he is frustrated that wasn’t enough for the health department and school district.

"It’s clear we received vaccinations there," said Joseph Garcia, a Plainedge school district board member, whose 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter couldn't attend school beginning Monday.

Garcia is among more than 50 parents of former Wild Child patients challenging in court or administratively the state’s and school districts’ efforts to either exclude their children or subpoena records.

Parents of more than 80 former DeVuono patients last month sued dozens of Long Island school districts, private schools and the state  Health Department, alleging the subpoenas and exclusions violate the federal and state constitutions and state law. Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Christopher T. McGrath dismissed the case on Tuesday.

In Plainedge, two other former Wild Child patients have been excluded and are now being home-schooled, Superintendent Edward A. Salina Jr. said. 

The exclusion decisions were made by the state, not the district, he said.

The state Health Department "reviewed these [records] and said these children must be excluded," he said.

State Health Department spokeswoman Erin Clary said the state "made schools aware of students we know to be out of compliance as a result of our investigations" and that schools have a legal responsibility to exclude students who do not have required immunizations unless they have a valid medical exemption.

Asked how many Wild Child patients haven't been able to attend school, she said the department "does not maintain real-time data on school exclusions." County health departments referred questions to the state Health Department. State Education Department spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.

Newsday on Thursday reached out to 18 school districts that have been either subpoenaed or were in the news for having had students with vaccination records from Wild Child. Districts were asked whether any child had been excluded this year because of Wild Child vaccination records.

Ten districts declined to comment, and three said children tied to Wild Child had their vaccination statuses cleared. Others did not respond to queries or said there was "no impact" to the district from Wild Child.

Garcia said his children are not among the 134 whose records were voided, after reviewing state Health Department records.

"If there's evidence that my children didn't actually get the shots, we would revaccinate," he said.

"This is not an anti vax thing," he said. "I want my children protected. The idea of my kids getting polio or dying of mumps or measles or rubella — I'd be a failure as a dad if I let that happen."

Christopher Renke, a Mineola attorney for Garcia, said the exclusion of the children is "nothing more than guilt by association. At the end of the day, it’s these children who are suffering."

Renke said even though the state only accepts blood tests for antibodies from certain vaccines, and not others, records showing Garcia’s children have some antibodies indicate they have received all required immunizations.

"I have yet to see any documentary evidence to suggest otherwise," he said.

Renke said Tuesday’s dismissal of the larger subpoena and exclusion case doesn’t affect Garcia’s appeal to the state Education Department to reverse his children’s exclusions. The department Wednesday rejected a request to allow his children to attend school while it reviewed the matter in more detail.

Garcia said he had sent his oldest child to DeVuono shortly after his birth in 2014, and his other children afterward. His oldest child is not being excluded, he said.

The state has said that it does not comment about specific children's cases.

Newsday reported in July that DeVuono had never reported administering a childhood vaccine in New York from her licensing as a nurse in 2002 until 2019, shortly after the state ended nonmedical vaccine exemptions. The state requires all vaccines administered to children be reported to its electronic immunization registry, Clary said.

Asked if the state believes DeVuono at times administered legitimate vaccines to children, Clary said, "As this investigation is ongoing, we cannot comment."

Garcia said he has paper records from Wild Child of vaccinations dating from 2014 and did not know why they were not in the state registry.

"I had no way of knowing that these shots weren’t being properly recorded," he said.

Plainedge school board President Joseph Beyrouty said that in the end, "the person at fault for this unfortunately is the nurse practitioner who was doing things she shouldn’t have been doing. It’s impacting a lot of people and hurting families."

With Lisa Colangelo