Vaccine exemptions among American kindergartners rose to 4.2 percent during the 2025 to 2026 school year, up from 3.6 percent a year earlier, and vaccination coverage fell for every vaccine the federal government routinely tracks, according to data the CDC posted to its SchoolVaxView system.
The new figures translate to roughly 155,000 children starting kindergarten with an exemption from at least one required vaccine, and about 280,000 attending school without documentation of completing the two-dose measles, mumps, and rubella series. Those two numbers describe different groups. The first covers children whose families filed paperwork. The second is larger and includes children whose records are simply incomplete.
