“Immunization coverage refers to the proportion of a defined population that is appropriately immunized against a specific vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) at a point in time”2 .
Student immunization coverage is usually expressed as a percent, and can be calculated for a variety of populations of interest: within a particular grade in a school, for an entire school, or across an entire region. As immunization coverage values increase, the greater the proportion of people in the population of interest who are appropriately immunized, and therefore considered to have protection from the vaccine-preventable disease of interest.
Assessment of whether or not students are appropriately immunized is based on whether they have received the immunizations indicated in the Publicly Funded Immunization Schedules for Ontario at the appropriate age and time intervals.