title: Early experience conducting school-located vaccination programs for seasonal influenza.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We determined program effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptance of school-located vaccination (SLV) clinics for seasonal influenza that took place before the 2008 universal influenza vaccination recommendations.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed program directors of 23 programs in the United States who conducted SLV clinics during the 2005 to 2006 and 2006 to 2007 influenza seasons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 391,423 children enrolled in schools with SLV clinics, 61,463 (15.7%) were vaccinated at 499 sites (schools) in 23 programs. Of these, 22 were small- and medium-sized programs that vaccinated 32,875 (24.1%) of the 136,151 children enrolled there, averaging 31.9% of students per site. One populous county vaccinated an additional 28,588 (11.2%) of its 255,272 enrolled children, averaging 13.9% per school. Children in grades K to 6 had consistently higher mean vaccination rates (21.5%) compared with middle school children (10.3%) or high school youth (5.8%). Program acceptability was high, and no program had to forego any key public health activities; 5 hired temporary help or paid overtime. The outlook for continuing such clinics was good in 7 programs, but depended on help with vaccine purchasing (9), funding (8), or additional personnel (4), with multiple responses allowed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These vaccination coverage rates provide a baseline for future performance of school-located mass vaccination clinics. Although the existence and conduct of these programs in our study was considered acceptable by leaders of public health departments and anecdotally by parents and school administrators, sustainability may require additional means to pay for vaccines or personnel beyond the usual available health department resources.
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology and Analysis Program Office, Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. rschieber@cdc.gov
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Schieber
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.forename: Emily B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Kahn
mesh_terms: D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D032541:Mass Vaccination / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012621:Seasons; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D007252:Influenza Vaccines