Area schools have begun planning their own vaccination clinics for the H1N1 virus, but shortages of vaccine complicated their selection of dates for the sessions.

Greenfield-Central, Mount Vernon, Southern Hancock and Warren Township school districts said clinics would be offered when vaccine was received.

Mount Vernon Community Schools has experienced the highest student absence rates in the area due to illness.

“We sent home permission slips with parents . . . and I hope we have a lot of parents send it in, so we can get these kids vaccinated,” said Mount Vernon Superintendent Bill Riggs.

Mount Vernon Intermediate School saw a 27 percent absence rate on Oct. 13, due largely to students with flulike symptoms. The rate had fallen to less than 20 percent a few days later, however.

Mount Vernon Middle School had a 19 percent absence rate on Oct. 13, when district illness rates appeared to spike.

“So far it’s been manageable,” Riggs said. Typical absence rates are around 5 percent, he said.

“They say to go ahead and get vaccinated even if you’ve had the flu, because you don’t know if it necessarily was H1N1,” Riggs said.

In the Southern Hancock district, New Palestine Elementary School’s absence rate surpassed 20 percent on Oct. 16, said Superintendent Jim Halik.

By the next school day, however, the school’s rate was returning to normal. That’s the only one of the district’s five school buildings where officials have seen a major change in attendance, Halik said.

Like Mount Vernon, the Southern Hancock district collected parental permission slips and waited for vaccine.

In the Greenfield-Central district, the highest absentee rate experienced by a school has been 13 percent, recorded on Oct. 22 at J.B. Stephens Elementary School.

The Hancock County Health Department is as frustrated as school officials by the lack of the vaccine, said Jerry Kieffer, a Health Department nurse.

“We’re just like the rest of the state and whole country,” Kieffer said. “We’re just at the mercy of whenever it gets to us.”

The shipments come from the Indiana State Department of Health, he said. H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines each come in both injectable and nasal mist form.

The county Health Department distributes H1N1 vaccine to area providers who have signed up to receive the vaccine.

For the seasonal flu, the department also offers its own vaccination clinics, providing vaccinations free of charge but asking anyone who is able to contribute to give $13 toward covering the administrative costs of continuing the clinics next year. The agency has received grant money covering the cost of this year’s clinics, he said.

To keep up to date on when vaccines are available, Kieffer advised residents to monitor the Web sites of Hancock Regional Hospital (www.hancockregional hospital.org) and the Hancock County Health Department (www.hancockcoin gov.org/health_department).

Warren Township schools experienced no dramatic spikes in student absences through the end of October and were averaging about a 5 percent absentee rate, said Dena Cushenberry, assistant superintendent for primary education.