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Background: Schools must annually complete a survey reporting how many students are up-to-date with required immunizations. A student’s up-to-date status is based on the parent-provided immunization record. The North Dakota Immunization Information System (NDIIS) is useful for obtaining immunization information since state law specifies that all childhood immunizations must be entered into NDIIS. Some schools access NDIIS to view records but many do not and rely solely on immunization records received from parents which may not include a complete immunization history.
Setting: The pilot project area is located in the state’s most populated city, Fargo. Fargo schools were chosen for the project because the local health department contracts with the school district to provide school nurses for the county. Twelve of those schools have kindergarten students enrolled.
Population: Immunization records from 100% of kindergarten students from four selected schools in Fargo, ND. The sample size of 317 records was selected to be a representative sample by the CDC based on the 2009-2010 kindergarten enrollment in Fargo.
Project Description: School nurses pulled immunization records for kindergarten students in the selected schools. The school’s records were then compared to immunization data from NDIIS, looking at number of doses that match between the two records for each student. Preliminary results include data from 161 records.
Results/Lessons Learned: Out of 161 student records, 156 (96.9%) had an immunization record in NDIIS. Of the clients with a school record, 69 (42.8%) matched on every dose with NDIIS. The NDIIS included more doses for 13 (8.1%) records and the school records included more doses for 8 (5.0%) records. Doses differed for 71 (44.1%) records. Of the 71 records that differed, 63 (88.7%) records were up-to-date in both the NDIIS and school record. Further analysis needs to be done to determine the cause of the non-matching immunization data.