Kindergarten Vaccination Rates Decrease as Vaccine Exemptions Increase

New data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that vaccination rates among U.S. kindergartners averaged about 92 percent for the diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (DTaP) and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines and declined during the 2023-2024 school year, while the percentage of children with vaccine exemptions reached 3.3 percent.¹ Twenty years earlier, in the 2003-20-4 school year, the CDC reported that vaccination rates for children entering school were over 95 percent for DTaP and MMR.²

In the 2023-2024 school year, vaccination coverage among kindergartners across the United States experienced a decline for all reported vaccines. Coverage rates ranged from 92.3 percent for the DTaP vaccine to 92.7 percent for the MMR vaccine. More than 30 states reported decreased coverage for routine vaccines, including MMR, DTaP, poliovirus, and varicella. The CDC’s report stated that approximately 280,000 kindergartners are attending school without documented completion of the MMR vaccine series.³

Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer for the National Association of County and City Health Officials said:

The broader story is that vaccination coverage decreased in 35 states, and 14 states out of those 35 had at least one full percentage point drop, and what that translates to is about 280,000 students without proof of complete vaccinations. But the more you consider local communities and neighborhoods, the more the risk can be different, because you see these larger pockets of vaccine-hesitant communities.⁴

According to Noel Brewer, PhD, a professor of health behavior at the University of North Carolina, unvaccinated children are often clustered within specific communities or schools. Brewer noted that individuals who are skeptical about vaccines tend to live in close proximity to one another.⁵

The proportion of kindergartners with vaccine exemptions has reached an all-time high, increasing to 3.3 percent from three percent for the 2022-2023 school year. This rise in exemptions occurred in forty states and the District of Columbia (DC), with fourteen states reporting exemption rates exceeding five percent. Approximately 127,000 kindergartners are now exempt from one or more vaccines.⁶

Non-Medical Vaccine Exemptions Have Increased

All states permit medical exemptions to vaccination that must be written by an MD or DO and in most states must conform to contraindications acknowledged by the CDC.⁷ All but five states (California, Connecticut, New York, Maine and West Virginia) allow a religious, personal belief of conscientious belief exemption.⁸ Over the past decade, the percentage of kindergartners with medical exemptions has remained relatively stable at approximately 0.2 percent; however, the percentage of non-medical exemptions has gradually increased, resulting in an overall exemption rate that rose from 1.6 percent in the 2011-2012 school year to more than double that figure in 2023-2024.⁹

Conflicting information from public health officials during the coronavirus pandemic and the controversy about COVID-19 shot risks and failure appears to have caused more parents to rethink routine childhood vaccinations and vaccine requirements for school entry that they once accepted. This rising vaccine hesitancy gives evidence for increased public awareness and questions about the safety, effectiveness and necessity of receiving many different vaccines.¹⁰

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