Vaccination Coverage among Children in Kindergarten - United States 2015-16 School Year.

Thursday, 13th of October 2016

MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2016 Oct 7;65(39):1057-1064. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6539a3.

Vaccination Coverage among Children in Kindergarten - United States 2015-16 School Year.

Seither R Calhoun K Mellerson J Knighton CL Street E Dietz V Underwood JM.

Abstract

State-mandated vaccination requirements for school entry protect children and communities against vaccine-preventable diseases (1). Each school year federally funded immunization programs (e.g. states territories jurisdictions) collect and report kindergarten vaccination data to CDC. This report describes vaccination coverage estimates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC) and the estimated number of kindergartners with at least one vaccine exemption in 47 states and DC during the 2015-16 school year. Median vaccination coverage* was 94.6% for 2 doses of measles mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR); 94.2% for diphtheria tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP); and 94.3% for 2 doses of varicella vaccine. MMR coverage increased in 32 states during the last year and 22 states reported coverage ≥95% (2). A total of 45 states and DC had either a grace period allowing students to attend school before providing documentation of vaccination or provisional enrollment that allows under vaccinated students to attend school while completing a catch-up schedule. Among the 23 states that were able to voluntarily report state-level data on grace period or provisional enrollment to CDC a median of 2.0% of kindergartners were not documented as completely vaccinated and were attending school within a grace period or were provisionally enrolled. The median percentage of kindergartners with an exemption from one or more vaccinations^† was 1.9%. State and local immunization programs in cooperation with schools can improve vaccination coverage by ensuring that all kindergartners are vaccinated during the grace period or provisional enrollment