Last Updated: January 2015

Author: Immunization Program, Vermont Department of Health

School immunization reports were completed by 100% of all public and private schools for the past three years. The percent of students entering Kindergarten in 2013-2104 who received 2+ doses of MMR vaccine was 91%. Kindergarteners who were fully immunized, which means that they received all doses of all required vaccines, fell by 1% to 86% from 86.9% in 2012-2013 and 87% the previous year.

This indicator is part of Healthy Vermonters 2020 (the State Health Assessment) that documents the health status of Vermonters at the start of the decade and the population health indicators and goals that will guide the work of public health through 2020. Click here for more information.

This indicator is also part of the State Health Improvement Plan (SHIP), a five-year plan that prioritizes broad Healthy Vermonters 2020 goals: reducing prevalence of chronic disease, reducing prevalence of substance abuse and mental illness, and improving childhood immunizations. The SHIP is a subset of HV2020 and details strategies and planned interventions. Click here for more information.

School nurses and administrators, primary care providers/staff, VDH Office of Local Health public health nurses

Vermont school immunization regulations require that all children be vaccinated prior to enrollment in a public or private school. Efforts are underway to reduce the number of children who don't meet immunization requirements as 7.9% of kindergarten students were provisionally admitted in 2013-14.

The philosophic exemption rate remained high at 5.8%. Of those students that had not received a specific vaccine, philosophic exemptions were identified as the primary reason. Health Department nurses are working with school nurses across Vermont to ensure that parents are informed about required immunizations. All components of the revised statute on vaccine exemptions in schools 18 V.S.A. § 1122, passed in 2012, have been fully implemented by the Health Department.

Education, enforcement of school immunization regulations and ongoing evaluation

Data is updated as it becomes available and timing may vary by data source. For more information about this indicator, click here.

Due to BRFSS weighting methodology changes beginning in 2011, comparisons between data collected in 2011 and later and that from 2010 and earlier should be made with caution. Differences between data from 2011 forward and earlier years may be due to methodological changes, rather than changes in opinion or behavior.