Community Resilience

The Current Landscape

Catoosa County faces a critical gap in community health, compounded by outdated IT infrastructure that often leads to lost or incomplete immunization records. Current data shows a 93.04% Kindergarten Immunization Rate, nearing but still falling slightly below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity. While 6.22% of students hold a religious exemption, an alarming documentation gap exists in early education, with only 36.22% Childcare Certificate compliance. Furthermore, early childhood vaccination rates are dropping, with only 80.7% of toddlers (19-35 months) receiving the MMR vaccine and just 62.4% completing the 7-vaccine series. These missing records and downward trends are in part driven by a system that can often be challenging for local staff to use, is highly dependent on personnel being adequately trained, and does a poor job at meeting the needs of highly mobile families. Overcoming these infrastructural barriers is essential to supporting our 3 pediatricians and protecting the community.