More Wisconsin students are getting exemptions from vaccinations, driven largely by an increase in personal conviction waivers.
The share of students with a waiver for one or more immunizations has risen from 1.6% in the 1997-1998 school year to 6.1% during the 2023-2024 school year, according to an overview from the state Department of Health Services. It includes data from 2,795 schools and 909,347 students.
It notes the percentage of students with religious and medical waivers has “remained relatively consistent,” while the share of those with a personal conviction waiver increased from 1.2% to 5.2% over the same period.
Over the past decade, the percentage of students meeting minimum immunization requirements has fallen from 92.5% to 89.2%, the overview shows.
In the prior school year, 2022-2023, kindergarteners in Wisconsin had one of the highest rates of vaccine exemptions in the country at 7.2%, according to CDC data reported in a recent Axios article. Only Utah, Oregon and Idaho had higher rates at 8.1%, 8.2% and 12.1%, respectively.
A DHS spokesperson notes Wisconsin has three exemption categories — medical, religious and personal conviction — while many other states don’t have all three.
“It is important to keep in mind that the waiver may be just for one vaccine and doesn’t mean the child is completely unvaccinated,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “Only 1.9% of children are reported as completely unvaccinated (for vaccines required for schools). This follows national trends of parents questioning or delaying vaccines more.”
