Exemptions From Childhood Vaccines Reach All-Time High in Arkansas, Nation

Arkansas’s rate of exemptions has risen every year since the 2015-16 school year, when 1.2% of kindergarten students had non-medical exemptions and 0.1% had medical exemptions. In 2016 and 2017, Arkansas experienced a mumps outbreak with nearly 3,000 cases. During the outbreak, the Arkansas Department of Health required students who were not fully vaccinated because of exemptions to be excluded from school for 26 days if they were exposed to the virus.

Although the national rate of childhood vaccine exemptions also reached an all-time high in the 2023-24 school year, it was lower than Arkansas’s rate. The CDC reported that 3.1% of U.S. kindergarten students had non-medical vaccine exemptions and 0.2% had medical exemptions for 2023-24. This was up from the previous school year, when 2.8% of U.S. kindergarten students had non-medical exemptions and 0.2% had medical exemptions.

The findings are based on data submitted by states to the CDC. The agency also reported that vaccine coverage among U.S. kindergarten students decreased in the 2023-24 school year for all reported vaccines. In Arkansas, vaccine coverage increased in the 2023-24 school year compared to the previous year for all reported vaccines, but coverage has declined overall compared to the 2019-20 school year, when coverage levels in the state were 93.2% for diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (dTaP), 96% for hepatitis B, 94.3% for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), 93.4% for polio, and 93.9% for varicella (two doses).