In a recent news release, the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) underscored the importance of pediatric vaccinations in preventing disease. The DOH school immunization data dashboard was recently updated to include data from the 2021-2022 school year.
According to DOH, the addition of immunization information from the 2021-2022 school year showed the following:
- Washington state’s K-12 immunization completion rate for the 2021-2022 school year was 91.7%. This rate has remained steady for the last two years.
- After the implementation of House Bill 1638 in 2019, kindergartener vaccination rates for MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) rose from 90.8% in the 2019-2020 school year to 94.4% in the 2020-2021 school year.
- The data show the number of students with at least one personal vaccine exemption is going down, while the number of students with at least one religious membership exemption is going up.
Learn more about Washington state school and child care immunization requirements here. For information about vaccinating youth specifically against COVID-19, visit DOH’s Vaccinating Youth page or explore our Youth and Vaccine messaging and assets folder in Dropbox.