Prove child immunization status

Overview

Parents and guardians can present trusted digital evidence of guardianship and a child’s immunization status during early childhood enrollment, reducing paperwork, manual follow-up, and repeated document handling.

The early childhood provider does not need to become an identity registry or health records system. It only needs to verify that the presented credentials were issued by trusted authorities, are still valid, and satisfy the enrollment policy.

Why it matters

Early childhood enrollment often asks families to collect and resubmit evidence that already exists in government or health systems. Providers then need to check that evidence, handle sensitive personal data, and follow up when records are incomplete or unclear.

Verifiable Credentials create a cleaner pattern:

• families control presentation through a wallet
• providers request only the proofs needed for enrollment
• trusted issuers remain responsible for the underlying records
• verifier systems can check status and issuer trust at the point of enrollment

This is a useful pattern anywhere eligibility depends on more than one authoritative source.

Ecosystem roles

• Issuers: Identity, civil registration, and health authorities issuing guardianship and immunization credentials.
• Holder: The parent or guardian who stores the credentials in a trusted wallet and chooses what to present.
• Verifier: The early childhood provider or enrollment service confirming that enrollment requirements are met.
• Trust governance: The rules that define accepted issuers, credential schemas, status checks, disclosure requirements, and fallback paths.

Privacy and assurance

The privacy value is not simply that the process is digital. It is that the provider can ask for the minimum evidence required, such as proof that immunization requirements are met, rather than collecting broad medical records.

Assurance depends on the provider checking:

• whether the issuer is trusted for the credential type
• whether the credential belongs to the presenting parent or guardian
• whether the credential is current, expired, suspended, or revoked
• whether the disclosed claims satisfy the enrollment rule

Fallback processes still matter. Not every family will have the required wallet or credential on day one, and enrollment policy needs a controlled way to handle exceptions.

Trust decision

The verifier decision is narrow: can this parent or guardian enroll this child based on current guardianship and immunization evidence?

If the answer is yes, the enrollment can proceed without the provider retaining unnecessary source documents. If the answer is no, the process should identify which requirement failed: issuer trust, credential status, guardianship, immunization, or policy fit.

Objective

Enable a parent or guardian to enroll a child by digitally proving guardianship and immunization status.

Description

A parent presents Verifiable Credentials from accepted identity and health issuers to satisfy enrollment requirements.

Actors

Parent or guardian; child; identity authority; health authority; early childhood provider.

Dependencies

Accepted issuer registry, credential schemas, wallet support, verifier policy, and status endpoints.

Preconditions

The parent or guardian holds the relevant credentials and can present them to the enrollment service.

Postconditions

Enrolllment proceeds, is paused for exception handling, or is denied based on verified evidence and policy.

Implementation notes

• Separate identity and health claims so the provider can request only what the enrollment process needs.
• Avoid storing full credential payloads unless there is a clear legal or operational requirement.
• Define verifier policy for accepted issuers, credential freshness, status checks, and fallback evidence.
• Test recovery scenarios, including expired credentials, missing guardianship proof, changed immunization status, and wallet access issues.

flowchart LR
    Parent@{icon: "tabler:user", label: "Parent/guardian", pos: "b"} -->|Presents proofs| ECE@{icon: "tabler:school", label: "ECE provider", pos: "b"}
    DIA@{icon: "tabler:building-bank", label: "Identity authority", pos: "b"} -->|Issues guardianship VC| Wallet@{icon: "tabler:wallet", label: "Wallet", pos: "b"}
    Health@{icon: "tabler:hospital", label: "Health authority", pos: "b"} -->|Issues immunization VC| Wallet
    ECE -->|Verifies status| DIA
    ECE -->|Verifies status| Health

sequenceDiagram
    participant Parent as Parent/guardian
    participant DIA as Identity authority
    participant MinistryOfHealth as Health authority
    participant Wallet
    participant ECE as ECE provider

    Parent->>DIA: Request guardianship VC
    DIA-->>Wallet: Issue Guardianship VC

    Parent->>MinistryOfHealth: Request immunization VC
    MinistryOfHealth-->>Wallet: Issue Immunization VC

    Parent->>ECE: Begins child enrollment
    ECE->>Parent: Request proof of guardianship & immunization

    Parent->>Wallet: Approve request & share VCs
    Wallet-->>ECE: Present signed VCs

    ECE->>DIA: Verify signatures & status
    ECE->>MinistryOfHealth: Verify signatures & status

    DIA-->>ECE: VC valid
    MinistryOfHealth-->>ECE: VC valid

    ECE-->>Parent: Enrolllment complete