{"id":9922,"date":"2026-08-16T16:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=9922"},"modified":"2026-08-16T16:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:05:10","slug":"states-set-school-vaccine-requirements-trumps-new-executive-order-doesnt-change-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=9922","title":{"rendered":"States set school vaccine requirements. Trump\u2019s new executive order doesn\u2019t change that"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n As students prepare for a new school year across the US, families are confronted with a fraught national discussion around vaccines and questions about which they\u2019re required to get in order to attend school.\n <\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s vaccine order is counterproductive and \u2018wrong on so many levels,\u2019 GOP lawmaker says<\/a><\/p>\n

\n An executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday is the administration\u2019s latest move to reduce the number of vaccinations recommended for children. Like some related efforts to reshape the federal government\u2019s approach to childhood vaccines, the executive order offers recommendations \u2014 but the authority to set and enforce vaccine requirements still lies with states.\n <\/p>\n

\n The administration signaled that it will push states to rework their vaccine requirements to incorporate the new federal guidelines, effectively upending longstanding practices aimed at improving childhood immunization rates. It\u2019s unclear exactly how officials plan to reinforce this, but the Department of Justice, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services have been directed to tie compliance with federal funding.\n <\/p>\n

\n State authority to set vaccine policy has been challenged before but broadly upheld by the US Supreme Court.\n <\/p>\n

\n States are still reviewing the executive order, but many \u2013 including those that follow federal guidance for vaccine policy and those that have broken from federal recommendations \u2013 say that it does not require any changes at the state level.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFederal recommendations do not change the requirements in Texas,\u201d the state health department said in an email to CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Others responded to the president\u2019s action with a commitment to science-based vaccine policy.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cVaccines are our most effective defense against vaccine-preventable illnesses,\u201d Dr. Puthiery Va, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. \u201cIn Maine, vaccines remain available at no cost to eligible children through the Maine CDC\u2019s Immunization Program. Maine\u2019s school and child care immunization requirements remain unchanged by federal actions to date.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The new executive order emphasizes the administration\u2019s aim to \u201cmaximize parental choices over vaccinations for their children,\u201d specifically noting that states should \u201cprovide religious and medical exemptions\u201d to vaccine requirements.\n <\/p>\n

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\nA child is vaccinated during an immunization event at the L.A. Care and Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan Community Resource Center in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on October 24, 2025.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Patrick T. Fallon\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nPatches of low vaccination in the US are becoming bigger, riskier holes<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

6 min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

\n All 50 states have their own laws requiring certain vaccines for students to attend school, and all allow students to be exempted from school vaccine requirements for medical reasons. The vast majority of states also allow vaccine exemptions for non-medical reasons, which may be categorized as religious or personal.\n <\/p>\n

\n According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only four states do not allow exemptions that are not for medical reasons: California, Connecticut, Maine and New York.\n <\/p>\n

\n New York removed the option for religious exemptions for school vaccines in 2019 after measles outbreaks in the state grew to some of the largest the US had seen in decades, and Connecticut removed its religious exemption option in 2021.\n <\/p>\n

\n Changes to any state vaccine exemption laws would need to be passed by state legislatures, many of which will not meet again until January.\n <\/p>\n

\n But courts can get involved, too. Mississippi started allowing religious exemptions in 2023 after a federal court order, and a move to allow religious exemptions in West Virginia is facing legal challenges. Before these changes, both states were known to have exceptionally high childhood vaccination coverage under some of the strictest laws.\n <\/p>

Read more Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, where hardship and resilience share quarters<\/a><\/p>\n

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\nAll 50 states have their own laws requiring certain vaccines for students to attend school, and all allow students to be exempted from school vaccine requirements for medical reasons.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Mary Conlon\/AP\/File<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Childhood vaccination coverage has been falling for years as exemption rates reach record levels.\n <\/p>\n

\n About 3.6% of incoming kindergartners in the 2024-25 school year had an exemption for a required vaccine, leaving about 138,000 new schoolchildren without full coverage for at least one state-mandated vaccine, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exemptions jumped more than a full percentage point over the past four years, and the vast majority \u2013 all but 0.2% \u2013 were for non-medical reasons.\n <\/p>\n

\n Public health experts say that building trust in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines is key to reversing the decline in childhood immunization rates.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf more and more parents choose not to vaccinate their children for non-medical reasons, we will no doubt see a rise in disease outbreaks,\u201d Dr. William Moss, an associate professor with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has said.\n <\/p>\n

\nMeasles cases in the US have reached a 35-year-high this year, the vast majority of which are in people who have not been vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.\n <\/p>\n

\n But the new executive order advises that the MMR be separated into three individual shots \u2014 a dramatic change that goes against broad scientific consensus and a suggestion that could raise doubts.\n <\/p>\n

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\nAn MMR vaccine at the City of Lubbock Health Department in Lubbock, Texas, on February 27.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
Annie Rice\/Reuters\/File<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\nRecord share of US kindergartners missed required vaccinations last year, ahead of surge in measles cases<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

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\n States have typically aligned their policies for vaccine requirements with recommendations from the CDC and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). But ACIP has undergone sweeping changes under US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and actions by the federal agency and the advisory board to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule \u2014 including a reduction in the number of diseases covered by routine vaccinations \u2014 have led many states to break from this longstanding practice.\n <\/p>\n

\n According to KFF, 28 states have announced that they will no longer follow federal vaccine recommendations. Most have indicated that they will instead follow recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, an independent medical association.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cFor decades, the U.S. childhood immunization schedule was developed through a rigorous scientific process required by law that evaluates the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and how they should be given to patients. This transparent, expert-led process has helped prevent serious diseases, reduce hospitalizations, and save millions of lives,\u201d the Governors Public Health Alliance said in a statement. The coalition includes more than a dozen governors who represent about a third of the US population.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s Executive Order directing changes to longstanding federal vaccine recommendations circumvents that process and defies scientific consensus. It also risks causing confusion and endangering our children,\u201d the alliance said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cParents should know that vaccines currently available in the United States remain available and that the Executive Order does not change that. Governors and state public health leaders hold the power to continue working with healthcare providers, schools, and local health agencies to ensure that parents have access to trusted information and can make informed decisions regarding the health of their children.\u201d\n <\/p>

Read more Why the middle of the country is back in the center of American politics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As students prepare for a new school year across the US, families are confronted with a fraught national discussion around vaccines and questions about which they\u2019re required to get in order to attend school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"yoast_head":"\nStates set school vaccine requirements. 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