LUMBERTON — The Robeson County Health Department is offering vaccinations against H1N1 to students on school grounds.

The Centers for Disease Control has listed people 6 months to 24 years old as an at-risk group that should be vaccinated.

Health Department nurses will go to schools on designated days to administer vaccines as long as vaccine is available. The vaccinations are optional.

Letters were sent home with students in kindergarten through 12th grades to notify parents of the clinic hours. High school clinics will be from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on campus; parents are not required to be present for the vaccination, and consent forms will be sent home with students before the clinic dates.

Elementary and middle school clinics will be held 2 to 7 p.m. on campuses, and parent or guardian presence is required. Children 9 years old and younger need two doses of the vaccine spaced four weeks apart; the second dose will also be administered in a clinic on school grounds.

Vaccinations are currently scheduled for elementary schools only, with middle and high school schedules pending.

On Friday, clinics will be held at Hargrave, Long Branch, Magnolia, Oxendine, Parkton, Pembroke, Peterson, and Piney Grove elementary schools.

On Monday, the Health Department will be at Prospect Elementary School; on Tuesday, R.B. Dean Elementary School; on Dec. 17, Rex-Rennert Elementary School; on Jan. 5, Rosenwald Elementary School; on Jan. 7, Rowland Norment Elementary School.

On Jan. 8, St. Pauls, Southside, Tanglewood, Union Chapel, Union, W.H. Knuckles, and West Lumberton elementary students may be vaccinated.

Deep Branch, East Robeson, and Green Grove elementary schools have already had vaccination clinics.