How to Get and Submit the South Carolina Immunization Certificate (DPH Form 4024)

To get a South Carolina immunization certificate for school or childcare, you have two options: print DPH Form 4024 yourself from the state’s SIMON online portal, or ask your child’s healthcare provider to generate it once all required vaccines are on file. This is the only document South Carolina schools and licensed childcare facilities accept as proof of immunization, and no child from daycare through 12th grade can be admitted or kept enrolled without one.¹

The form used to be issued by DHEC. Since July 1, 2024, the Department of Public Health handles immunization records, and the current form is DPH Form 4024. Older DHEC-branded certificates you may already have on file still exist in the system.²

Print It Yourself Through the SIMON Portal

The fastest route is the SIMON portal at simonportal.dph.sc.gov, which lets a parent or legal guardian download the official certificate directly. The steps are:³

Open the SIMON portal and enter your child’s information.
Select your relationship to the child (parent, guardian, or self).
Enter the phone number or email address already on file in your child’s SIMON record.
Click “Search” to receive a verification code by phone or email.
Enter the code, then click “Download School Certificate” to get DPH Form 4024.

Two limits are worth knowing before you rely on this method. The portal only prints certificates for children meeting requirements for grades 5K through 12, so parents of daycare-age children cannot use it. And the printed certificate has to reach the school exactly as it came out of the portal. Any handwriting or electronic edit invalidates it, and schools will reject an altered form.³

If the portal can’t find your child, the usual cause is a mismatch between what you typed and what’s stored in SIMON. You can submit a SIMON Vaccination Record Request through the DPH website to fix the discrepancy.

Get It From Your Child’s Provider

Pediatricians and other South Carolina healthcare providers use SIMON to log every dose they give, and they can print a Form 4024 once your child meets the age or grade requirements. Ask for one during a routine visit or call the practice’s medical records line. For children entering licensed daycare, this is currently the only way to obtain the certificate, since the SIMON portal doesn’t issue it for that age group. Local health department clinics operated by DPH can also issue the form.

If Your Child Was Vaccinated Out of State

Vaccines given in another state or at a military facility may not show up in SIMON on their own.³ Bring the out-of-state records to a South Carolina healthcare provider. Once the provider enters the dates into SIMON, they can print the official DPH Form 4024. A doctor’s printout from another state, or your own copy of past shot records, is not a substitute for the form.

What Has to Be on Record Before the Certificate Will Issue

SIMON will only produce a certificate that shows the vaccines required for your child’s age and grade. The 2025–2026 requirements published by DPH are the current reference.⁴

Grades 5K Through 6

DTaP: four doses, with at least one on or after the fourth birthday.
Polio (IPV): three doses, with at least one on or after the fourth birthday.
MMR: two doses, both on or after the first birthday, separated by at least four weeks.
Hepatitis B: three doses, with the third after 24 weeks of age and at least 16 weeks after the first.
Hepatitis A: two doses (required grades 5K through 5), both on or after the first birthday, separated by at least six months.
Varicella: two doses on or after the first birthday, separated by at least four weeks. A documented history of chickenpox also satisfies this.

Grades 7 Through 12

Students entering 7th grade add one Tdap booster, given on or after the 10th birthday, and that requirement carries through 12th grade.⁵ The other requirements above still apply, with one change in the top grade: 12th graders need only one varicella dose instead of two.⁴

Childcare

Licensed childcare has its own age-based schedule that starts as early as three months and adds Hep B, DTaP, Hib, PCV, IPV, MMR, varicella, and Hepatitis A by age two. Your pediatrician’s office tracks these milestones against DPH’s annual school law letter and can print the certificate when your child is up to date.⁴

Check the Expiration Date

Certificates are not all open-ended. If your child has started but not finished a required series for their current grade, the form carries an expiration date matching when the next dose is due. Your child can attend school until that date, but you’ll need to get the dose administered and generate an updated certificate before the old one lapses. A certificate that shows every required series complete for the current grade will not carry a near-term expiration.

A separate note on varicella: if your provider has diagnosed prior chickenpox or has laboratory evidence of immunity, that documentation can stand in for the vaccine on the form.

If You Can’t Get the Records in Time

Families transferring in or waiting on paperwork have a narrow safety valve. The school principal or an authorized representative can issue a Certificate of Special Exemption, which allows the child to attend for 30 calendar days while you secure records.¹ It can only be used once per student. When it expires the child must present a valid Certificate of Immunization, a medical exemption, or a religious exemption. No extensions.⁶

Medical and Religious Exemptions

South Carolina recognizes only two exemptions from the immunization requirement: medical and religious. There is no philosophical or personal-belief exemption.⁶

A medical exemption is recorded directly on DPH Form 4024 by a licensed physician, surgeon, or osteopath who determines that a specific vaccine is contraindicated for your child. If the contraindication is permanent, the provider checks the permanent exemption box. There is no separate form.⁶

A religious exemption uses a different document, Certificate of Religious Exemption DPH Form 1126 (or 1126A online), and it can only be obtained from a local health department. Private doctors and schools cannot issue it. You sign a statement affirming that the required immunizations conflict with your religious beliefs, and the signature has to be made in front of a notary public.⁷ South Carolina caps notary fees at $5 per document. No provider signature is required. You can change your mind later and complete the vaccinations.

Turning the Certificate In

Bring the certificate to the school registrar or childcare administrator as part of the enrollment package. Most schools take a physical copy at registration or accept a scanned upload through a school portal. Personal shot records, doctor’s office printouts that aren’t the official form, and out-of-state records don’t substitute for DPH Form 4024.³

Registrars will check the expiration date against the academic calendar. If a dose comes due mid-semester, get it administered and print an updated certificate before the old one expires. A child whose certificate expires or is found invalid can be excluded from school until an updated certificate, medical exemption, or religious exemption is on file.

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 44-29-180 – School Pupils and Day Care Center Children To Be Vaccinated or Immunized
2
South Carolina Department of Public Health. DHEC Restructuring
3
South Carolina Department of Public Health. Online Access to Immunization Records
4
South Carolina Department of Public Health. South Carolina Immunization Requirements for Childcare and School 2025-2026
5
South Carolina Department of Public Health. Preteen and Teen Vaccines
6
South Carolina Department of Public Health. Exemptions from School Vaccine Requirements
7
South Carolina Department of Public Health. South Carolina Certificate of Religious Exemption