California kindergarteners have low rate of vaccine-exemptions
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California kindergarteners had one the nation's lowest rates of vaccine exemptions as of 2022, according to CDC data.
What's happening: Just 0.2% of kindergartners across California were granted exemptions for required vaccines as of the end of the 2022 school year, compared to 2.6% in 2012, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.
Why it matters: Vaccinations reduce the spread of childhood illnesses — some potentially fatal — that once plagued the country, such as polio.
- While children are generally required to get a number of vaccinations before attending public school, exemptions can be granted for both medical and non-medical reasons (such as religious or moral objections), depending on local rules.
Between the lines: The state fell below the U.S. median (1.9%) in 2016 after California schools stopped granting vaccine exemptions for religious or other personal beliefs as part of legislation passed the year before.
- The law came in response to a 2014 measles outbreak at Disneyland, in which the majority of patients were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status, according to the CDC.
- The bill was sponsored by then-Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, a San Diego Democrat who became the first woman and first person of color to lead the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
Zoom in: After that law went into effect, use of medical exemptions to avoid vaccines rose statewide, including a small, niche group of San Diego doctors.
- One doctor wrote nearly one-third of all medical exemptions from vaccinations for the San Diego Unified School District, a Voice of San Diego investigation revealed in 2019.
- Later that year, another law passed to crack down on the inappropriate use of medical exemptions for kids in schools. The statewide exemption rates ticked down thereafter. .
The big picture: The nationwide median kindergarten vaccine-exemption rate was rising even before the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing from 1.4% in 2012 to 2.6% in 2019.
- It's stayed at 2.5% or higher since 2020, coming in at 2.7% in 2022, the latest year for which data is available.
- Idaho had the highest national rate at 9.8%, while Mississippi, New York and West Virginia were tied for the lowest at 0.1%.