Strategy
The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) launched the Vaccinate Before You Graduate (VBYG) program to ensure all Rhode Island (RI) students have a chance to be fully immunized before high school graduation.
Challenge
In 2001, the VBYG program was launched to help students complete their hepatitis B vaccination series in Grade 12. The program expanded to include all high school grades in 2010 and began offering all routine adolescent immunizations. In September 2015, the VBYG program was expanded again to include all middle school students in RI.
Solution
The VBYG program offers convenient vaccinations during school hours for students at school-based clinics at no out-of-pocket cost to families. The program has expanded multiple times since its creation over 20 years ago and currently offers the following vaccines to middle and high school students: COVID-19, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, HPV, influenza, MMR, MCV4, MenB, Polio, Tdap, Td, and varicella.
To facilitate the VBYG Program, RIDOH contracts with The Wellness Company. The Wellness Company is a large-scale State-Supplied Vaccine (SSV) provider and licensed wholesale vaccine distributor staffed by experienced health care professionals. The Wellness Company personnel can be called into service quickly, as needed, to hold vaccine clinics anywhere in RI.
School administrators can utilize The Wellness Company partnership to coordinate and host vaccine clinics for middle and high school students in their communities. RIDOH provides The Wellness Company’s contact information, so school administrators can host VBYG clinics without needing to go through the health department. Parents and students can view a VBYG clinic calendar on The Wellness Company’s website.
Outcome
The program is ongoing and continues to produce positive outcomes. Rhode Island has made great progress in catching students up on immunizations after setbacks experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2025-2026 school year, 84 schools participated in VBYG, and 3,879 vaccine doses (including flu) were administered. For the meningococcal B (MenB) vaccine, 650 doses were administered, which was a 20.8% percent change from the previous year.
RIDOH used dashboards created through Microsoft Power BI to share annual VBYG data with the public through annual reports showing trends, city and town level data, as well as individual school reports. The dashboard can display VBYG trends from 2017-2018 through 2025-2026 and includes number of schools participating, and total number of routine vaccine doses administered (both including and excluding flu). The same dashboard shows individual vaccine types administered in 2025-2026 compared to the prior school year.
An additional dashboard shows VBYG City/Town-Level data for the 2025-2026 school year compared to prior school year. This dashboard also shows school-level numbers for the 2025-2026 school year.
In 2024, focus groups were conducted among parents of adolescents in RI about their knowledge and awareness of the VBYG Program. It was found that some parents had not heard of the VBYG Program, while many of the parents had heard of it but were not sure exactly what it was or how to participate. Based on this information, additional resources were developed to promote the VBYG Program, as well as the launching of a media campaign which included social media, radio, and local magazine advertising to promote the program.
Supplemental Materials