Oregon has the highest percentage of children enrolled in kindergarten who have been exempted from receiving at least one vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
For the 2012-2013 school year, the state’s kindergarten students had a vaccine exemption rate of 6.4%. Illinois and Vermont were tied for second at 6.1%, with Idaho and Michigan next at 5.9%. Alaska, which had the highest rate last year at 7.0%, dropped to 5.6% this year, the CDC said.
Mississippi, at 0.0005%, had the lowest rate of kindergartners with vaccine exemptions. New Mexico had the second-lowest rate (0.4%), followed by Virginia at 0.5% and Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, and New York (all at 0.7%), according to the CDC.
The median rate for the 49 states (and the District of Columbia) that reported exemptions was 1.8%. The CDC noted that "an exemption does not necessarily imply a child was not vaccinated."
