Colorado public school vaccination rates released

FILE – Medical personnel vaccinate students at a school in New Orleans on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. U.S. data suggests it is unlikely that COVID-19 vaccines might trigger a rare inflammatory condition linked with the virus in children, according to a study published Tuesday, Feb. 22. Researchers from the CDC and other institutions analyzed vaccine surveillance data in their study, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. (AP Photo/Ted Jackson, File)

by: Lanie Lee Cook

Posted: Mar 18, 2022 / 09:14 PM MDT

Updated: Mar 18, 2022 / 10:27 PM MDT

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DENVER (KDVR) — Nearly 42% of public school students in Colorado are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Colorado has released student vaccination rates on a public dashboard. The data includes public school students from kindergarten through 12th grades and can be broken down by school, district or county.

As of March 18, the data showed:

47.5% of students had at least one dose
41.5% of students were fully vaccinated
6.8% of students had an additional dose

Vaccination rates vary around the state, according to the data released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The data is meant to help people in school communities decide on COVID-mitigation measures, like continued indoor masking and physical distancing.

“This is especially important for parents of children with weakened immune systems and educators/school staff with immunocompromising conditions who have daily contact with students,” CDPHE said in a news release.

Colorado public school COVID vaccination data

Statewide, vaccination rates increased by grade. About 26% of kindergartners were fully immunized. The percentages tick up from there, topping out at nearly 58% of high school seniors showing full immunization.

Fully vaccinated students were more than half the student population in just 16 school districts, including some in the Denver metro:

Expeditionary BOCES: 75.6%
Boulder Valley RE-2: 70.6%
Steamboat Springs RE-2: 63.4%
Telluride R-1: 63.4%
Aspen 1: 63%
Littleton 6: 59.4%
Ridgway R-2: 55.2%
Cherry Creek 5: 53.8%
Cheyenne Mountain 12: 53.4%
Jefferson County R-1: 53.4%
Poudre R-1: 53.1%
Roaring Fork RE-1: 52.2%
Douglas County RE-1: 51%
Summit RE-1: 50.5%
St. Vrain Valley RE-1J: 50.4%
Denver County 1: 50.3%

See the data for each Colorado public school and public school district on this website.

COVID vaccines aren’t mandatory for Colorado’s public school students, so schools are not required to collect information on who’s vaccinated.

To figure out the numbers, the state said it matched patient immunization records with student records. About 96% of those records — or 855,621 of them — successfully matched a record in the Colorado Immunization Information System.

The dashboard is to be updated weekly. It will include vaccination rates for students younger than 5 once a vaccine is approved for the age group.