School Clinic Assistance Project

Background:  Indiana implemented a substantial adolescent mass vaccination requirement for Fall 2010 school entry.  All 6^th through 12^th grade students were required to a one valid dose of both Tdap & Meningococcal vaccine and 2 valid doses of Varicella or a history of the disease.  It was estimated that over 500,000 adolescents would be in need of receiving at least one of the required vaccinations.  In the wake of the H1N1 vaccination campaign, local health departments (LHDs) were tasked with ensuring that all students in their county were compliant with the requirement, no later than 20 days after the start of school.  With extensive budget cuts at the local level and no dedicated funding to implement this campaign, as with H1N1, LHDs faced many barriers to achieving success.  In response, the Indiana State Department of Health established the School Clinic Assistance program to provide LHDs with vaccination staff, registry data entry staff and vaccination supplies to increase their capacity to host numerous school based and community mass clinics. 

Setting:  State and local health departments, school based clinics

Population:  Adolescents in 6^th through 12^th grades

Project Description:  State and local health departments will be presented information on implementation of a mass adolescent vaccination campaign.  Participants will 1) learn about Indiana’s experience with implementing new adolescent school requirements for 7 grade levels simultaneously, 2) understand challenges with compliance, and 3) gain innovative solutions to assist local public health in achieving compliance.

Results/Lessons Learned:  Public health workers will be able to learn from Indiana’s challenges and achievements with implementing a extensive adolescent vaccination requirement.