Nicky Rockwell, 7, is comforted by his mother, Jane, after receiving a shot from Firefighter Jason Fanion at Primrose Hill School in Barrington.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

With swine flu spreading across Rhode Island, state health officials are pleased that an average of 75 percent of eligible students received shots at school vaccination clinics that began Monday and continued through the week. But the mediocre response at a few clinics has raised concerns.

While more than 80 percent of the students were vaccinated at many schools — even above 90 percent at some — the rate was close to just 50 percent at several, according to the state Health Department. Most of the schools with lower rates were in Providence.

The Health Department is talking with officials to identify the reasons for a lower turnout, said spokeswoman Annemarie Beardsworth.

“Was it a transportation issue for the parents? Was it just that these happen to be schools where parents didn’t want to get kids vaccinated? If it’s something we can address, and make accommodations for, we obviously want to do that,” Beardsworth said.

The state’s plan is to hit every public and private school in the state over the next few weeks, as long as vaccine supplies hold out.

When the clinics began on Monday, the state had a supply of 19,000 shots, but by the end of the week, another 14,600 had been made available, according to spokeswoman Carol Hall-Walker. As of Wednesday, about 9,000 children had received shots at school clinics.

On Monday, 82 percent of the 350 students at Primrose Hill School in Barrington got shots. The rate was even higher at Old County Road School in Smithfield, with 86 percent, and at St. Rocco School in Johnston, with 90 percent.

The best success during the first week was at the Northern Early Learning Center, where 199 of 203 pre-K to first graders, or 98 percent, were vaccinated on Tuesday.

It was a different story in Providence at the Alfred Lima Elementary Annex, 58 percent; the Windmill Street Elementary School, 53 percent; and the Sergeant Cornel Young Jr. Elementary School, 46 percent.

Eusebio Lopes, principal at Windmill, said a long line formed before the afterschool clinic started on Monday and did not dissipate for hours.

“We had parents waiting a long time in line which was frustrating,” he said. “Some parents waited an hour and a half to two hours to receive the vaccine.”

Toward the end of the clinic, two more volunteers arrived to help the staff of four administer shots. That helped shorten the line, he said, but there was no way to know whether some people gave up waiting and never returned.

“I think there were some lessons learned in terms of logistics,” Lopes said. “It’s wonderful we were the first ones [on the schedule], but in terms of organizing it, we had to move … We did the best we could with the short amount of time we had.”

Christine O’Reilly, a spokeswoman for Providence schools, said that the district took several steps to encourage participation. But urban schools, she said, often face greater challenges than their suburban counterparts when it comes to parental involvement.

“Our families sometimes face greater barriers to attending, whether it be during the school day or after,” said O’Reilly. “Many of our parents may be working two jobs. The barriers in general terms of lifestyle are oftentimes greater. Given our population, and what they are dealing with, I think the turnout was pretty strong. They were right about where we hoped they would be.”

In October, the Health Department mailed parents a notice of the clinics, along with consent forms. Many schools followed up by sending a separate notice home with children. Providence sent a second notice home because consent forms were being returned “more slowly than hoped,” O’Reilly said.

Providence and other school districts also used automated mass-calling systems to reach parents by telephone about the clinics.

“It’s been a very coordinated effort,” O’Reilly said. “From our perspective, the Department of Health has done a great job with coordinating a very big task.”

The way the department sent over additional volunteers to Windmill to shorten the wait for inoculations “gave us confidence” in the agency’s ability to respond to needs.

Not all of the schools with subpar turnouts were in Providence. Northern Lincoln Elementary School had 61 percent.

The turnout was 57 percent at the St. James School, in Lincoln, a special-education institution that is part of the Northern R.I. Collaborative. Cindy Kendall, assistant special education director, said the lower-than-average turnout is probably because the students come from nearly a dozen communities, making the trip a potential barrier for some families to participate. At the Wilbur & McMahon School in Little Compton, 87 percent of students were inoculated.

“I thought if we saw 75 to 80 percent that would be pretty good, for two reasons. Some kids, on any given day, will be sick. And there was a little bit of apprehension on the part of families to inoculate with something that is pretty new on the market,” said Principal James M. Gibney.

“I’m a child of the polio vaccination era in the ’50s. I remember as a young boy… going to a local armory to have shots. I remember my family and several other families debating whether to go through with it or not. It was right at the heart of the epidemic … It was untried. People weren’t sure if there were going to be any side effect. As a result, I don’t know of anyone who got the vaccination who got polio. I equate [swine flu] with that experience from a whole different era.”

With reports from

Felice Freyer

rsalit@projo.com

Correction: Because of an error in Health Department figures, a previous version of this story gave incorrect information about the percentage of students at Narragansett Elementary School who were vaccinated at the Nov. 3 clinic. In fact, 72 percent of the school's students received vaccine.