Amid ongoing measles concerns, Austin ISD’s vaccination rate is below target for its youngest students

As a measles outbreak in West Texas continues to raise concerns throughout the state, Austin ISD’s vaccination rate for incoming kindergarteners remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

Public health experts say around 95 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated against measles to ensure “herd immunity” and prevent outbreaks of the highly contagious disease, which can lead to serious complications.

In the 2023-24 school year, 83.67 percent of Austin ISD kindergarteners received the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, according to data from the Department of State Health Services. That figure marked a significant drop from 2020, when 96 percent of district kindergartners were vaccinated.

Alana Bejarano, AISD’s executive director of health services and nursing, said the Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on school vaccination rates.

“There was a lot of upheaval, and I do believe that we’ve been on a kind of a catch-up program since then,” Bejarano said.

Since 2020, the vaccination rates for MMR have dropped several percentage points each year, but this year there has been some progress, Bejarano said. While DSHS does not yet have official data for the current school year, Bejarano said the district’s rates for kindergarteners have risen to around 88 percent. She also emphasized that the district’s vaccination rate for students across all grade levels is around 95 percent.

Students at accredited K-12 schools in Texas are required to receive the MMR vaccine – along with vaccines for polio, hepatitis B, chickenpox and several others – but the state allows for conscientious exemptions for “religious or personal beliefs.”

Austin ISD’s conscientious exemption rate for all students was 2.31 percent in the 2023-24 school year. Bejarano said the conscientious exemption rate among kindergarteners is similar to the districtwide rate – meaning many of the unvaccinated students in that grade have not filed an exemption.

“That other number accounts for those that are in the process of getting a conscientious or medical exemption. They could be our newcomer-slash-refugee population, of which we’ve had quite the influx recently. It could be those that have appointments but haven’t yet gone – and there could be a true percentage there of those that are just unvaccinated,” she said.

She said AISD follows state law, which allows for a 30-day provisional admission period for students who are not fully in compliance. During that time, the district works with parents to make sure they know the requirements and have access to appointments.

But Bejarano acknowledged that it can take longer in some cases, like with homeless students or students who leave the district and come back. She said the district typically has to submit data to DSHS in early October, when the district may still be actively working with some students to get the vaccines they are required to have.

“That, I think, is just the intricacy of schools – is that there’s a lot of moving parts,” she said.

Austin ISD’s 2023-24 kindergarten rate was lower than other Central Texas public school districts, such as Eanes ISD and Hays CISD, both of which exceeded 96 percent. It was also lower than comparable large districts, like Houston ISD at 93.52 percent and Dallas ISD at just over 92 percent.

Some local private schools, however, had lower rates, including Austin Waldorf School, at just under 64 percent, and Acton Academy Northwest Austin at just under 63 percent.

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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