The United States fell further from its kindergarten vaccination targets in the 2025–2026 school year, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, only 92.4 percent of kindergartners received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, known as MMR, down from 92.5 percent the year before. Coverage with the DTaP vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough, dropped from 92.1 percent to 92.0 percent.
The 95 percent vaccination rate is considered the threshold needed to prevent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases from spreading through communities. The United States last reached that mark during the 2019–2020 school year. Since then, rates have declined each year.
More than half of states saw decreases in coverage for MMR, DTaP, polio, and varicella, the vaccine for chickenpox. Only 10 states currently have MMR vaccination rates at or above the 95 percent threshold: West Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, New York, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, California, and New Mexico.
The decline in vaccination rates came alongside a sharper rise in exemptions. In the 2025–2026 school year, 4 percent of kindergartners had a nonmedical exemption from school vaccine requirements, meaning the exemption was based on personal or religious beliefs. That figure was 3.2 percent the previous year, making it a significant single-year jump. Medical exemptions remained steady at 0.2 percent.
The CDC released the data on a Monday. No federal intervention or policy response was announced alongside the report.
