Top Takeaways The state’s vaccination rates for kindergartners dropped by nearly half a percentage point to 93.7% in 2023-24. Measles cases and federal policy shifts spark vaccination concerns. California law requires 10 immunizations before entering public school. The state of California is auditing 428 of its public schools because more than 10% of their kindergartners or seventh grade students were not fully vaccinated last school year. An additional 80 schools did not report their vaccination information to the state. Shifting federal policies and new measles cases are again making vaccination a national conversation. Last year, there were 2,255 measles cases nationwide — the most since the 1990s. The California Department of Public Health reported 25 cases of measles in the state in 2025. Just last week, an unvaccinated student in Napa County was diagnosed with measles after being exposed to it while visiting South Carolina. The number of schools on the state vaccination audit list is lower than in the previous two years, but 110 of the schools have been on the list for at least three years. Having fewer schools on the audit list this year doesn’t necessarily mean more students are being vaccinated. In 2023-24, the most recent year student vaccination data is available, vaccination rates for kindergartners dropped by nearly half a percentage point to 93.7%. “I think California’s still in a good place in terms of the protections that we have,” said Catherine Flores Martin, executive director of the California Immunization Coalition. “A dip in California can be…
