Madison County school officials say they will give swine flu vaccinations to all county students whose parents return permission slips.

The county is one of those in Kentucky offering in-school swine flu vaccinations, but other counties are not, due to availability issues with the vaccine.

Oldham County also has a plan to give shots during in-school clinics in that district's middle and high schools in early December, said Melanie Dowdy, director of school health services.

"We felt like it was important to have a convenient way to get it done," she said. "Parents can't always leave work" to get to vaccinations clinics.

Dowdy said there will be after-school clinics at the district's elementary schools because officials felt it was best for younger children to have their parents with them when they get the shots.

Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association, said school districts are being encouraged to get students vaccinated, but how vaccine is delivered will vary widely.

Fayette County Public Schools are not offering school-day clinics, said spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall.

Lexington-Fayette County Health Department spokesman Kevin Hall said weekend clinics are being held using school facilities. He said health officials thought the weekend clinics were the best way to reach the most people and there simply isn't enough vaccine available to offer shots to all 36,000 students in Fayette's 56 schools.

Owen Saylor, deputy superintendent in Jessamine County, said it has discussed the swine flu vaccine with local health department officials, but doesn't want to make an offer of in-school vaccines if they can't fulfill it.

"What we don't want to do is put something in the works and not have enough vaccine," Saylor told the Herald-Leader.

As of late last week, some 3,000 of Madison County's 10,000 students had returned consent forms, said Christie Green, a spokeswoman for the Madison County Health Department.

She said that's about 10 percent fewer than originally anticipated. The health department has about 2,000 doses of the vaccine, some of which are allocated to other high-risk groups such as health care workers, she said.

She said it may take several weeks, but all Madison County students with consent forms will be vaccinated. The clinics are not otherwise open to the public, and are just for the schoolchildren.

"This is the age group that is most affected," said Erin Stewart, the Madison County school district's community education director. "It will definitely help the overall health of the community."