AURORA | Aurora takes immunizations seriously — at least, according to new data released from education news nonprofit Chalkbeat Colorado.

In Aurora, nearly two-thirds of students in more than 50 schools had immunization rates of 90 percent or better during the 2015-16 school year, meaning most students are up-to-date on vaccinations required by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

In addition, Cherry Creek School District had the highest immunization rates among K-12 students in the state, at a near-perfect 98.4 percent.

But even while Aurora Public Schools and CCSD can boast these numbers, the districts still face challenges in maintaining and improving the amount of students who are vaccinated.

In Cherry Creek schools, English-language learners make up slightly more than 10 percent of the total student population, including students who speak primarily Spanish, Arabic and more than half a dozen other languages. As a result, families sometimes need information about vaccinations translated from English.

“We pull language codes (from student files) and then send the information to our parents in the appropriate language,” said Suzanne Oro, director of health services for CCSD. “We have to communicate with our parents in a way they understand.”

While Cherry Creek School District has to do this for more than roughly 5,400 students, the sum pales in comparison to the more than 14,000 students who are designated as English-language learners in Aurora Public Schools. In addition, CCSD benefits from the “professional school nursing model,” where a nurse is stationed in nearly every building in the district, providing much needed manpower for data entry and communicating with parents about vaccination requirements. APS doesn’t have the same system.

“It is a challenge,” said Kathy Reiner, a registered nurse and member of the health services administration team for APS. “For example, at a certain school we might run a report from a student database for how many students still need some vaccinations and sort those by language and then further do some work to identify how we’re going to go about doing that communication. It’s a multistep process as opposed to a school district that might have a larger percentage of English-speaking families and parents. It’s a more time-consuming piece of work.”

But in her 19 years with the district, Reiner has seen improvements in how APS tackles this issue.

The district has more bilingual staff members these days and access to a “language line,” she said.

“We can call into (the language line) and do a conference call with the parent, speaking pretty much any language to explain to them that their child is needing some additional protection from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Reiner said.

Another challenge schools in Aurora face when it comes to vaccinations is the mobility or transciency rate, which measures how many students transfer in and out of schools in a given year. During the 2014-15 school year, CCSD had a mobility rate of 13.2 percent.

“The kids may not spend the entire school year there and change schools frequently,” Oro said. “Children who move frequently may have to change health care providers. Their families may not consistently have the documentation easily available … maybe you haven’t had the opportunity to develop a relationship with a health care provider in your new community to maintain the records. Population mobility impacts multiple areas of health and immunization compliance is one of them.”

CCSD identified Prairie Middle School as one of the school’s in its district with a high mobility rate at 18 percent. To help this student population, the district is teaming up with the Tri-County Health Department for an immunization clinic Aug. 10 at Prairie so students can receive required vaccinations before the school year begins. The previous clinic in November was so popular, some vaccinations actually ran out.

APS, which had a transiency rate of about 24 percent in 2014-15, holds a similar event before every school year where vaccinations are offered for free or at a reduced cost.

“It’s one of the most important things we as school health professionals can do in our community, in working with our community partners, like Tri-County Health, and the state health department and other pediatric health providers in the community,” Reiner said. “We take it very seriously and we care about kids. That’s why we’re there.”