Connecticut State Department of Public Health

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School Immunization Survey Data

All of the following information plus additional datasets are now available on the CT Open Data Portal, School Immunization Survey Data Page.

Vaccination is a medical intervention with direct benefits to both individuals and communities. When a large percentage of a population is vaccinated, the entire community (vaccinated and unvaccinated) receives additional protection from vaccine preventable diseases. This concept, known as 'herd immunity,' is a primary justification for mandatory vaccination policies in the United States. By following the recommended schedule and fully immunizing children on time, parents protect their children against 14 vaccine preventable diseases. If a high enough percentage of children are vaccinated outbreaks can also be prevented. 

Required Immunizations for School and Child Care
In the U.S., all states require children attending public school or state-licensed day care facilities to receive a series of vaccinations. Vaccination requirements for school and day care attendance are critical to ensuring high rates of vaccination. Linking vaccination with school attendance, which is also required by law, ensures that vaccines reach the greatest number of children. Schools are a prime venue for the transmission of vaccine-preventable disease, and active school-age children can further spread disease to their families and others with whom they interact.1 Specific vaccine requirements for school and child care vary by state. The Connecticut immunization laws and regulations can be found on the Department of Public Health’s web page. In CT, school and child care programs are responsible for ensuring that attendees meet the vaccination requirements. Children who do not meet vaccine requirements can attend school if they have received all vaccines for which they are eligible and are on a catch-up schedule or have a physician's note verifying an appointment to receive vaccines is scheduled. 

Immunization Survey
Each year the Connecticut Department of Public Health Immunization Program Conducts education-based immunization surveys including the pre-kindergarten2 (pre-K) through 12th grade school survey and the post-secondary school (college/university survey). These immunization surveys are used to determine the extent to which children, adolescents, and young adults in education in Connecticut are protected from vaccine-preventable diseases. They collect school-level data on the number of attendees who have received required vaccines and the number who have submitted documentation to claim an exemption. Individual vaccine information on each student is not collected. 

Data presented here on completion of school-entry mandated vaccines series for children enrolled in kindergarten and 7th grade, on mandated influenza vaccination for children enrolled in pre-K, and on vaccination exemptions (medical and religious) for all children enrolled in grades pre-K through 12. School-mandated vaccine series for students enrolled in kindergarten are inactivated polio, DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis), MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella, hepatitis B, varicella and hepatitis A. Additional mandated vaccines for students enrolled in 7th grade include meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV) and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis). Influenza vaccine is a requirement for pre-K students only, who are 24 through 59 months of age. For each required vaccine children are categorized as either compliant, or not compliant. These categories are not intended to be legal terms, but a simplified measure for survey purposes. Students are counted as compliant if they have submitted proof of immunity, such as vaccination records, or have submitted a valid exemption. Students are counted as not compliant if they have not submitted documented proof of immunity, are on a catch-up schedule, or have a doctor's note verifying a scheduled appointment to receive vaccines. 

Typically survey results for the current school year will not be available until the summer or fall of the next school year.


Highlights for 2020-2021
The COVID-19 pandemic began in the last quarter of 2019 and continued into the 2020-2021 school year. Many schools in Connecticut were operating as either partially or fully remote at the start of the school year and for the months following. The 2020-2021 school immunization survey data was collected during this time.


The percentage of Connecticut kindergarten students receiving required MMR vaccines in the 2020-2021 school year is 95.3%. This is a decrease of 0.9% from the previous year and a drop of 1.8% since 2012–2013. For public schools, the MMR rate is 95.4% and for private schools it is 93.2%. To achieve herd immunity for measles, 95% of the population must be vaccinated or have had the disease.3 Of the schools with more than 30 kindergarten students, 146 schools have MMR rates below 95%, 53 of which have MMR rates below 90%.


The COVID-19 pandemic likely impacted the ability of the schools to collect information needed to complete surveys, which would increase the number of students out of compliance and counted as unvaccinated. For example, during this school year the percentage of Connecticut kindergarten students out of compliance for MMR vaccine is 2.1%, an increase of 0.8% over the previous year. For the period of 2012 to 2019, the percentage of students out of compliance with MMR vaccine ranged from 1.0-1.3% and remained relatively consistent with fluctuations typically only 0.1% from year to year.

The percentage of kindergarten students with a religious exemption remained the same compared with last year, at 2.3%. The national average during 2020-21 for non-medical exemptions is 1.9%4. The percentage of kindergarten students with a religious exemption has increased 0.9% since 2012–2013. The percentage of kindergarten students with a medical exemption also remained the same compared with last year, at 0.2%, compared with 0.3% during previous years.


Public Act (PA) 21-6, effective upon passage on April 28, 2021, amended current statute as relates to vaccine exemptions in Connecticut. More information on immunization law in Connecticut, including PA 21-6 can be found on our Immunization Laws and Regulations web page. It should be noted that the data included on this page relates to school years prior to the passage of PA 21-6.

State Immunization Rates and Exemptions

Click here to see State-level annual pre-K through 12th grade survey results for kindergarten, seventh grade, and influenza vaccine for pre-K.

County Immunization Rates and Exemptions

Click here to see County-level annual pre-K through 12th grade survey results for kindergarten, seventh grade, and influenza vaccine for pre-K. 

School Immunization Data
Includes annual pre-K through 12th grade survey results for each reporting school. You can look up individual schools to see immunization rates, exemption rates, and other related information.  Results for schools with less than 30 students are not shown in the tables.  

1 http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-managers/guides-pubs/downloads/vacc_mandates_chptr13.pdf

2 Includes preschool programs run by local boards of education; preschool programs located in child care centers are counted on the child care survey.

 

3 https://www.cdc.gov/grand-rounds/pp/2020/20200218-measles-elimination-vaccine.html

 

4 Vaccination Coverage with Selected Vaccines and Exemption Rates Among Children in Kindergarten — United States, 2019–20 School Year


 


For more information or to contact the Immunization Program, please call:
860-509-7929, during normal business hours, Monday-Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm


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