Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s School Vaccination Assessment: Collaboration With US State, Local, and Territorial Immunization Programs, 2012–2018

Objectives. To describe the ongoing collaboration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) school vaccination assessment with state, local, and territorial immunization programs to provide data to monitor school entry vaccination. Methods. Departments of health and education partner to collect data from public school, private school, and homeschooled kindergartners in the 50 US states, the District of Columbia, 2 cities, and the US territories. Immunization programs submit vaccination coverage and exemption data to the CDC, and the CDC reports these data annually via multiple sources. Results. Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the number of programs using a census for vaccination coverage data increased from 39 to 41 during the school years 2012–2013 to 2017–2018 (which for most states was August or September through May or June), and the number using a census to collect exemption data increased from 40 to 46. The number of states that reported sharing their local-level vaccination coverage data online increased from 11 in 2012–2013 to 31 in 2017–2018. Conclusions. Coverage data can be used to address undervaccination among kindergartners to work with communities and schools that are susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases. As more states publish local-level data online, access to improved data provides the public more valuable information.