Florida vaccine exemptions rise as state targets mandates
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The Florida Department of Health wants to drop four required vaccines for children as a growing number of kindergarteners have vaccine exemptions.
Why it matters: Thousands of Florida children are already going to school without protection from preventable and deadly diseases, including measles and polio.
- Florida recorded over 100 cases of measles, including 19 among children younger than 10, just as students prepared to head back to school.
The latest: Under a new proposal by the state Department of Health, students in pre-K through grade 12 wouldn't have to be vaccinated against hepatitis B, chickenpox, Haemophilus influenzar type b (Hib) and pneumococcal conjugate.
- It also expands religious exemptions to include "moral and ethical beliefs" and allows parents and college students to not share their records in the state vaccine database.
By the numbers: Last school year, nearly 6% of kindergarteners were exempt from one or more vaccines, well above the national average, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- About 12,500 of the state's kindergarteners were exempt from one or more vaccines, with non-medical exemptions accounting for nearly all of them.
- Coverage with the MMR, DTaP, polio and varicella vaccines among kindergartners fell from at least 93.5% in the 2019-2020 school year to 88.1% in 2023-24, per CDC data.
Zoom in: In 2026, 84.7% of kindergarteners in Broward County were fully vaccinated, nearly 5% below the state average, per state data.
What they're saying: Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who has vowed to end all vaccine mandates in the state, has likened them to "slavery."
- "Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?" he said last year. "I don't have that right. Your body is a gift from God."
Between the lines: Schoolchildren are still required by state statute to get immunized against seven illnesses: polio, diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, mumps, rubella and tetanus.
- Parents can, however, obtain a religious exemption for their child by visiting the county's health department. No appointment is needed, and no questions are asked.
Friction point: Attorney General James Uthmeier has threatened to disqualify Catholic schools from state scholarship and voucher programs over their refusal to accept non-medical exemptions.
Yes, but: Polling shows childhood vaccines remain popular, but the Trump administration's efforts to upend longstanding vaccine policies could further erode trust in vaccines, medical experts say.
- President Trump recently signed an executive order calling for a slimmed-down childhood vaccine schedule and breaking the MMR vaccine into three separately administered shots.
What's next: The proposal, which Ladapo approved on Aug. 20, now has a 21-day period for public input.