CIIS Users

As a healthcare provider participating in the Colorado Immunization Information System, you must provide notification of the right of a patient to opt-out of CIIS. You can choose to notify individuals in several ways:

• Posting a CIIS Opt-Out Notification Poster in your lobby and/or exam rooms

• Providing CIIS Frequently Asked Questions Sheets in your office

• Posting a notice on your organization’s website

• Writing about CIIS in your clinic’s newsletter

• Mailing individual notices to your patients

If you choose to post the CIIS Opt-Out Notification Poster in your office, you must also have the CIIS FAQ sheets available for your patients:

•  CIIS Opt-Out Notification Poster 

CIIS Frequently Asked Questions Sheets

• English
• Spanish
• Russian
• Vietnamese 

The poster by itself is not sufficient. You can order both the CIIS Opt-Out Notification Poster and the CIIS FAQ Sheet by downloading and completing the Immunization Order Materials Form. These notification materials are provided free of charge to you as a CIIS User.

• Immunization Materials Order Form

Benefits

CIIS simplifies record keeping for schools by:

• Providing free, immediate, and secure access to student immunization records

• Enabling schools to more efficiently manage workloads during peak school enrollment periods

• Allowing school staff to check the accuracy of handwritten shot records and verify with electronic records in CIIS

• Allowing school nurses to add immunization information to a student record in CIIS and/or create a new student record in CIIS to allow for a more complete and consolidated immunization record

• Allowing school nurses to see which immunizations CIIS is forecasting for their students

• Enabling schools to verify exemption status for students in order to facilitate exclusion from school in the event of a disease outbreak

• Providing statewide access to a child’s immunization record as they move between school districts in Colorado

How to Join CIIS

School implementation of CIIS includes the following steps:

• Review the Full CIIS Confidentiality Policy 

• Review the CIIS Security Policy 

• Complete and return the School Implementation Documents

• Creation of individualized user IDs and passwords for all school CIIS users

• Completion of the technical set-up for computers that will be used to access CIIS

• Training of school staff to use the specialized CIIS School Application

Effective July 1, 2011, school nurses now not only are able to look up student record in CIIS, they have the ability to enter immunization data as well as create a new patient in CIIS. With this enhanced functionality, school users and head start programs have the ability to run immunization reports for their respective facilities. Licensed child care centers will be offered read only access to CIIS. All users will be able to see which immunizations CIIS is forecasting for their students.

Please note that it is the responsibility of any school that participates in CIIS to ensure that it complies with any local, state or federal laws and statutes that govern its ability to provide data to CIIS.

Further, it is not the responsibility of CIIS to ensure that schools comply with these laws and statutes. The Immunization Registry Act of 2007 - CRS 25-4-2403 - allows for the collection of immunization information from schools. As CIIS operates under this state statute, we are permitted to receive immunization data from schools that are allowed to provide it to us.

In short, if a school participating in CIIS has determined of its own accord that it is indeed compliant with all applicable laws and statutes, then it will be allowed to enter data into CIIS.

CIIS policy requires that schools notify parents regarding the entry of immunization information into CIIS as parents legally have the right to exclude their child's information from the registry. Schools can display a CIIS Notification Poster in the school or utilize other communication methods to comply with this policy. We are in the process of developing a notification poster that schools can order free of charge from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Additionally, it is important for schools to ensure that they are following their own confidentiality requirements, and if providing information in the registration packets meets that requirement, this would suffice as well. If you have any questions about whether your educational facility is allowed to enter immunization data into CIIS, please contact your legal counsel directly.

NOTE: Per our legal department, CIIS is unable to provide a "template" for schools to use to collect parental consent to share student information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Colorado schools require that children receive certain immunizations (or provide proof of parental vaccine exemptions) in order to attend school. The Colorado Immunization Information System is giving access to nurses and other health professionals in Colorado public schools on a rolling basis.

Please revisit this page for updates and more information as it becomes available.