Kindergarten Immunization Rates Return to Pre-Pandemic Levels, but Gaps Remain
Immunizations are among the most successful and cost-effective preventive health care interventions, protecting millions of children worldwide from serious and potentially fatal infectious diseases. Among U.S. children born between 1994 and 2023, an estimated 500 million illnesses will be prevented and more than 1.1 million lives saved by routine childhood vaccinations, at a net savings of nearly $2.7 trillion for society.
Percentage of California Kindergarteners With All Required Immunizations: 2021-22 School Year
The latest data on kindergarten immunizations in California are mixed. On one hand, 94% of the state’s more than 500,000 kindergarten students had received all doses of required vaccines—diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP); measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR); hepatitis B; polio; and varicella—prior to entering school in 2021-22. This figure is up from 92.8% for the 2020-21 school year and is similar to pre-pandemic levels (94.3% in 2019-20). California’s rebound stands in contrast to national trends, which show falling coverage for each vaccine over this period, followed by further drops through the 2023-24 school year.
Still, more than 30,000 kindergarteners statewide had not received all required immunizations in 2022—fewer than 1 in 20 (1,511) of whom were permanently exempt from one or more immunizations due to their physical condition or medical circumstances.
Furthermore, immunization coverage at the local level is uneven. For example, more than 97% of kindergarteners in Colusa and Monterey counties were fully vaccinated in 2022, compared with fewer than 80% in El Dorado and Sutter—two counties with high proportions of kindergarteners with ‘other exemptions’ available to those receiving instruction through an individualized education program (IEP), home-based private school, or non-classroom-based independent study program.
To protect children, schools, and communities from vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks, policymakers can work to ensure that all families—in particular, those not in contact with settings where immunizations are required (such as licensed child care, preschool, and public and private K-12 schools)—have access to a regular source of high-quality health care, affordable and accessible vaccinations, and science-based vaccine information. Read more about strategies to increase immunization rates.
Wildlife Recovery Resources
Emergency help and resources are available for individuals and families impacted by the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County. Follow the links below for federal, state, and local information and guidance.
- FEMA: California Wildfires and Straight-Line Winds
- CDC: Wildfire Smoke and Children
- State of California: Help and Info for People Affected by the Wildfires
- Medi-Cal: Emergency and Disaster Assistance Information Questions & Answers
- Los Angeles County: Emergency Information and Recovery Resources
- City of Los Angeles: Wildfire Recovery Resources
Opportunities
On January 29, at 12:00 p.m. PST, experts from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and Cal State Fullerton will share results from a new study on CalFresh access and use among students pursuing higher education.
Examining Measures of Disability and Health Care Need for Children and Youth
Join KidsData’s Beth Jarosz at the 2025 Applied Demography Conference in Tucson, Arizona, on February 4, at 11:15 a.m. MST, where she’ll present new analyses of three measures of disability prevalence among U.S. children and what they reveal about the sociodemographic characteristics of children identified using each measure.
Children’s Health Resources
KIDS COUNT Data Resource Guide
This guide, developed by PRB for the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT network, provides practical information and advice on how to use major U.S. sources of data on the well-being of children and families. The guide includes an overview of each major data source—what data are available, how to access those data, and considerations for use—along with some general best practices for assessing reliability, making comparisons, and disaggregating by race and ethnicity.
Kids in Common Data Book Dashboard
Explore key indicators for Santa Clara County children and families on Kids in Common’s new interactive data dashboard.
Exclusionary Discipline Threatens Youth Mental Health, but Protective Factors Can Help
A new PRB research highlight summarizes recent findings linking exclusionary discipline practices—such as detention and suspension—with anxiety and depression in students who are disciplined. Protective factors, like extracurricular activities and healthy relationships with parents, are effective buffers against mental health symptoms for all young people, regardless of whether they experience exclusionary discipline.
Recently Released Data
We recently released data about immunizations. See links to the latest here.
Posted by kidsdata.org
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