Changes to federal policy, vaccine hesitancy among families, and measles outbreaks over the past few years have heightened concerns about vaccination rates among children. While vaccination rates are relatively high in California, they are uneven across the state—with low-income and rural schools, along with charters, more likely to be cited for noncompliance. These schools face both public health and funding risks.

Childhood vaccinations play an important role in preventing the spread of infectious diseases, which is why schools throughout the US require certain vaccines—like measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR)—to enroll in kindergarten. There were 2,285 confirmed measles cases in the US in 2025, and this year, there have already been 1,487 confirmed cases as of March. California reported 25 cases in 2025 and has already reached 29 cases in 2026.

California boasts some of the highest vaccination rates in the country, in part due to state laws that do not allow non-medical exemptions; all but four other states (Connecticut, New York, Maine, and West Virginia) permit exemptions from school vaccination requirements based on personal or religious beliefs.

Overall, vaccination rates among California students remained relatively high in 2024–25 (the most recent year of data), but there is variation across schools and communities, meaning that certain areas are more vulnerable to outbreaks than others. Public schools in California must report information on kindergarten and seventh-grade students’ vaccination statuses to the state each year. Schools that admit more than 10% of kindergartners or seventh-grade students who do not meet vaccination requirements undergo compliance audits and are at risk of losing state funding.

The share of kindergarteners who received all required vaccines in California was 93.7% in 2024–25, similar to the previous year. Rates were higher for some individual vaccines, including MMR. More than 96% of California kindergartners were vaccinated for MMR in 2024–25, exceeding the commonly cited 95% threshold for herd immunity. In contrast, the national average for MMR vaccination dropped to 92.5% in 2024–25.

However, vaccination rates among kindergartners vary significantly across the state. In 2024–25, 12 of California’s 58 counties reported overall immunization rates below 90%, and 15 counties reported MMR vaccination rates below 95%. These local differences can leave some communities more susceptible to disease spread even when statewide averages are high.

In 2025–26, 296 elementary schools statewide admitted more than 10% of their kindergartners conditionally because their families had not submitted the required vaccination records; this was down from 352 schools in 2024–25. A total of 119 schools appeared on the audit list in both years, indicating continued gaps in compliance. Some larger school districts have shown improvement over time, including Los Angeles Unified, which reduced the number of schools on the audit list from 44 to 32 over the two-year period, and Oakland Unified, which reduced the number from 28 to 14. In contrast, San Francisco Unified saw a slight increase from 10 to 12 schools. These patterns suggest that progress has been uneven across districts.

When we compare audited schools to non-audited schools (the vast majority of schools in the state), we find that audited schools were more likely to be low-income, in rural areas, and charters. Audited schools in 2025–26 had 72% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, compared to about 60% in non-audited schools. In addition, the share of audited schools that were rural was much higher than the share of non-audited rural schools (31% vs. 12%), and audited schools were less likely than non-audited schools to be located in cities and suburbs. Meanwhile, about 21% of audited schools were charter schools, compared to 13% of non-audited schools.

Schools that continue to fall short of vaccination requirements can face financial consequences. In 2023 and 2024, California schools lost $2.2 million in state funding due to noncompliance with student vaccination requirements. These funding losses followed state audits of public schools where more than 10% of kindergartners or seventh-grade students were not fully vaccinated.

California’s immunization requirements are based on recommendations from the West Coast Health Alliance (WCHA) and medical professional organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an approach that insulates the state from recent federal policy changes, including an overhaul of the national immunization schedule that was temporarily halted by a federal court.

Strong vaccination requirements for schools are keeping immunization rates high in most of California. Yet persistent gaps in some regions and rising measles cases nationally present ongoing risks. These gaps likely reflect a mix of factors, including healthcare access barriers and vaccine hesitancy; some students are exempt for medical reasons.

Collaboration between local health jurisdictions, school districts, and individual schools will be important for maintaining high coverage. Vaccination events at schools and mobile clinics can play a key role in ensuring that children receive the required vaccines by improving access, particularly for underserved students and families.

An earlier version of this post was published on April 24, 2025 and October 10, 2023.