All articles tagged with #kindergarten
Michigan’s immunization waiver rate rose for the fifth straight year in 2025 to 7.1%, with kindergarteners leading at 7.7%—the highest rate in a decade; residents can use an online tool to look up their local school’s vaccination data.
PolitiFact notes a nationwide 0.1% drop in kindergarten MMR vaccination during 2025-26, leaving about 280,000 kindergartners under-vaccinated and contributing to rising measles cases in 2026 (over 2,700 so far), including deaths among unvaccinated individuals. Exemptions have grown for non-medical reasons, and belief in vaccine myths correlates with delaying vaccines. North Carolina is highlighted as part of this broader pattern, illustrating how even small declines in vaccination can enable outbreaks when herd immunity falls short in many states.
CDC data show 4.2% of kindergartners had vaccine exemptions for the 2025-26 school year—up from 3.6% and about 155,000 children—while New Hampshire recorded a 5.4% exemption rate, up 1.3 points. Health providers cite parental hesitancy and information overload as factors, and officials note families can vaccinate later if a child misses an initial dose.
CDC data show a 0.1% year-over-year decline in kindergarten vaccination rates for the 2025–2026 school year, but former ACIP vice chair Dr. Robert Malone says the drop is not alarming given overall high compliance and the global context of measles outbreaks. He criticizes media framing of the data, emphasizes that vaccination remains the best protection against measles, and argues there is no need for panic.
CDC data show U.S. kindergarten exemptions rose to a record 4.2% in the 2025–2026 school year, contributing to a nationwide drop in vaccination coverage and highlighting wide state-by-state variation in exemption policies.
CDC data for the 2025-26 school year show kindergarten vaccination exemptions hit a record 4.2%, up from 3.6% and higher than 2020-21, with most exemptions for non-medical reasons. Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) coverage dipped to 92.4% (below the 95% herd-immunity target), while varicella vaccination fell to 93.4% with the two-dose rate edging up to 92.2%, underscoring ongoing measles risk amid suboptimum vaccination levels.
Parents are curbing home screen time while schools increasingly deploy iPads for kindergartners to games and videos (including YouTube during breaks), with districts claiming limited daily use even as families report growing classroom exposure—igniting a national debate over the role of tech in early education.
Connecticut has the highest kindergarten MMR vaccination rate in the U.S. at 98.2%, surpassing the herd immunity threshold, with overall vaccination rates increasing since 2020. Despite high vaccination coverage, some schools still fall below herd immunity levels, and flu vaccination rates are declining amid rising flu cases. The state eliminated religious exemptions in 2021, allowing only medical exemptions.
U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates have significantly declined since before the pandemic, with only 28% of counties maintaining herd immunity levels, due to political backlash, lax enforcement, and misinformation, increasing vulnerability to outbreaks of measles and other preventable diseases.
Russia conducted a drone attack on Kharkiv, damaging a kindergarten, killing one person, and injuring nine, amidst widespread strikes across Ukraine targeting energy infrastructure, with President Zelensky condemning the attack on the kindergarten as unjustifiable. The assault is part of ongoing Russian aggression since February 2022, with recent escalations including attacks on energy facilities and civilian areas.
The article discusses the rise in vaccine non-compliance among Texas kindergarteners, especially for measles, with rates increasing significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic due to disrupted healthcare access, politicization of vaccines, and resource challenges faced by school districts, leading to concerns about increased vulnerability to preventable diseases.
Vaccine non-compliance among Texas kindergarteners has surged during the pandemic, with some districts reporting up to 44% delinquency in measles vaccinations, driven by disrupted healthcare access, vaccine politicization, and resource shortages, leading to the lowest statewide vaccination rates since 2011 and increased vulnerability to preventable diseases.
Vaccination rates among U.S. kindergartners continue to decline, with MMR coverage dropping slightly to 92.5%, increasing vulnerability to outbreaks amid rising anti-vaccine sentiments and exemptions, especially under the influence of figures like RFK Jr.,
Vaccination rates among American kindergarteners have declined for all vaccines during the 2024-2025 school year, with exemptions rising to 3.6%, leading to a resurgence of measles cases, the highest since 2000, and falling below the CDC's herd immunity target of 95%.
Over 200 children in a Chinese kindergarten were found to have high blood lead levels after kitchen staff used paint as food coloring, leading to a government investigation, detention of involved personnel, and public outrage over food safety and transparency issues.