DPH: 116 CT Schools Report MMR Vaccine Rates below 95%, Including 6 Kindergarten Schools Under 80%

HARTFORD, CT (UPDATED 4:30 p.m.) — Connecticut schools have one of the highest immunization rates in the country, but according to the state Department of Public Health, 116 public schools reported immunization rates for measles, mumps, and rubella that were below 95% last year.

That included six schools in which less than 80% of the kindergarteners were vaccinated.

The vaccination data, which was for the 2017-18 school year, was released following a series of requests by CTNewsJunkie as well as members of the General Assembly. The state DPH updated its data over the course of the afternoon Friday, including removing from the lists that they originally uploaded all the schools with enrollments of less than 30 students. The DPH’s original data also reported vaccination rates for kindergarteners and seventh graders separately for the same schools in some cases, so the current map with this story corrects for that change as well.

Measles outbreaks, like the nine that are ongoing in New York, California, Michigan, Maryland, Georgia, and New Jersey, are less likely to occur at schools in which a large number of students are immunized to achieve herd immunity.

Read more: https://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/20190503_immunization_rates_show_that_108_schools_are_below_95/