The percentage of American kindergartners exempted from MMR vaccines rose sharply in the 2025-26 school year, as overall vaccination rates continued to fall.
New federal data released showed that exemptions from one or more vaccines among kindergartners in the United States increased to 4.2 percent, up from 3.6 percent the previous year. At the same time, vaccination coverage for all reported vaccines like MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella), DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis), poliovirus vaccine (polio), and varicella (chicken pox) fell slightly from the year before.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, 92.4 percent of students had received the MMR vaccine, below the 95 percent rate considered necessary to prevent widespread outbreaks. This comes as the U.S. continues to experience the worst measles epidemic in 35 years. The U.S. has been falling from this coverage rate since the pre-pandemic 2019-20 school year when the rate was 95.2 percent. Since then, the rate has remained below 94 percent.
All states and the District of Columbia require children to be vaccinated against certain diseases, including measles and rubella, to attend public schools. However, exemptions are allowed in certain circumstances, including for religious or philosophical reasons. The data show a significant increase in the percentage of families with non-medical exemptions across more states. Pockets of undervaccinated children within larger areas of high vaccination coverage can lead to outbreaks, according to the CDC.
The decline in childhood vaccine coverage comes as the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attempt to make sweeping changes to federal vaccination policy amid heated debates over COVID-19 vaccine mandates and a lingering distrust of public health authorities. The CDC reported more than 2,500 measles cases last week, surpassing the 2,289 cases recorded throughout 2025. According to the agency, 93 percent of those cases were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.
President Trump’s executive order recommending that the MMR vaccine be divided into three separate appointments has not been well-received by the pharmaceutical industry. Drugmakers and trade groups argue there is no scientific basis for the directive, and the administration did not provide new scientific data to support splitting the shot.