In the Spring of 2024, the Wyandotte County Health Department completed a rapid community assessment thanks to the assistance of NACCHO and the “Equipping Local Health Department to Address Vaccine Hesitancy” grant. Our rapid community assessment consisted of a survey to the parents of our school districts and focus groups with school nurses. Because of strong interest in the topic and the resources made available by NACCHO funding, we were able to have one large listening session by coordinating with our partners at the Kansas City, Kansas Public School district. We hoped this listening session would be an opportunity to learn more about nurses’ firsthand experiences with students and parents as they work to keep the students from falling behind on their immunization schedules. We believed these frontline workers could shine some light on the factors that make getting vaccines harder or easier for Wyandotte County families and what the attitudes of our families are about immunization.

The listening session was conducted by two experienced health department staff members. The questions we asked included:

• What are some things that make it easier for people in the community to get their child vaccinated?

• What are some things that make it more difficult for people in the community to get their child vaccinated?

• What are some common concerns parents/guardians have about getting their child vaccinated?

• What common misinformation have you seen or been told about vaccines from parents/guardians or other sources?

• How do you think community organizations, local government, and schools can build vaccine confidence and make vaccines more accessible?

• Do you think the schools could or should be doing more to enforce vaccinations in the student population?

67 school nurses participated in the listening session to share their perspectives and air their concerns. They shared what conversations they’ve had with parents and students, which enlightened us to the challenges faced by the families in our county. One of the most cited challenges are language barriers—there are dozens of languages spoken in our school districts and there aren’t adequate resources to support each language. Another challenge for Wyandotte County families is finding appointments that work with their schedule—many of our families have two working parents (or one single working parent) who work long hours that don’t guarantee time off for things like doctor’s appointments.

The nurses were notably upset by the idea that the community wasn’t coming together to achieve herd immunity and that there isn’t a good working knowledge of what herd immunity is and why it’s important. “They need to know that herd immunity isn’t to protect healthy people. It’s to protect people that are unable to deal with sickness.” There were several school nurses who recalled from their childhood the fear of diseases like polio, and the eagerness to get immunized.

As stated by one health department team member, “What was most notable to me was how frustrated they were. They were extremely concerned that preventable diseases were going to be introduced back into the population, and there was near universal agreement that something needs to be done to reverse this trend.”

There was a deep understanding that it was important that the local health system make immunization as easy and convenient as possible for our diverse and hard-working community members. The information gained from this session will guide the health department team to provide coordinated and intentional support to our local school districts’ efforts to get students caught up on their immunizations. The health department looks forward to providing immunizations at back-to-school fairs and creating a communications toolkit to advertise immunizations that provide information on how to access vaccines and dispel any misinformation that has spread to ensure our community members feel confident that they are providing their children with safe and smart protection against disease.