Measles Cases Rise as Kindergarten MMR Coverage Declines

During the 2025-26 school year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 0.1 % overall drop in vaccination coverage among children entering kindergarten. That decline left roughly 280,000 kindergartners without documented completion of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) series. The CDC also noted a growing share of parents requesting non-medical exemptions, a trend that has risen consistently since the 2020-21 school year, while medical-exemption requests have remained stable.

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CDC data show that, in the first eight months of 2026, the United States recorded over 2,700 measles cases—more than the total reported for all of 2025. In 94 % of those cases the individuals were unvaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown. The CDC further reported that only ten states maintained the 95 % MMR coverage needed for herd immunity during the 2025-26 school year. In 2025, two school-aged children and one adult died of measles; all were unvaccinated. Authorities later announced two additional measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania in 2026, including a newborn whose autopsy found measles virus in lung tissue.

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KFF senior survey manager Lunna Lopes said there is a persistent correlation between parents’ belief in vaccine falsehoods and their decision to delay or skip vaccines, even after controlling for age, education and partisanship. The Vaccine Confidence Project found that support for statements such as “vaccines are safe” and “vaccines are important for children” has declined since 2015. Parents who reported avoiding or postponing vaccinations were about twice as likely to consider vaccine myths “definitely” or “probably true.”

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> “There’s going to be huge drops in some regions and in some school districts, and hardly any drops in others,” — Robin Mejia, a biostatistics professor at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health

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The CDC emphasized that achieving 95 % MMR coverage is essential to prevent community transmission, noting that the current shortfall leaves many districts vulnerable to outbreaks. KFF highlighted the “muddled middle” of parental attitudes, where individuals are not fully convinced by either pro- or anti-vaccine arguments, contributing to uneven vaccination rates across the country.

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