Vaccination coverage among the nation’s kindergartners slipped again in the 2025-26 school year while the share of children claiming exemptions climbed to a record 4.2%, new CDC data shows.
Coverage for the MMR vaccine fell to 92.4%, down from 92.5% a year earlier and below the 95% threshold public health officials say is needed to keep measles from spreading. Coverage for the diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine dropped to 92%, and polio matched MMR at 92.4%. Varicella coverage also declined, and all four vaccines lost ground in more than half of states.
The 4.2% exemption rate — up from 3.6% the previous year — is the highest the CDC has recorded and extends an upward climb that began in the 2020-21 school year. About 155,000 kindergartners held an exemption from at least one required vaccine, and roughly 280,000 lacked documentation of a complete MMR series.
Exemptions rose in 41 states and Washington, D.C. Nearly half of states now report exemption rates above 5%, the level at which a single introduction of measles can seed a wider outbreak.
In a statement accompanying the data release, the CDC described the year-over-year change as a 0.1-percentage-point decline in coverage and said rates remained high. The agency did not address the record exemption rate.
The declines land amid a year of turbulence in federal vaccine policy. The Trump administration ordered a childhood vaccine overhaul, HHS remade the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in a move medical groups condemned, and the childhood immunization schedule has drawn repeated scrutiny.
For hospitals and health systems, softening coverage raises the odds of vaccine-preventable disease surfacing in emergency departments and pediatric units, especially in the communities where exemptions cluster.
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