Child vaccine rates in Ohio continue to drop, state reports

Ohio's youngest school children remain under-vaccinated in 2024, a trend that has persisted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic both nationally and in Ohio  (Source: “Vaccination rates in Ohio kindergarteners drop, sparking concern in health experts,” Columbus Dispatch, July 24).

Data from the Ohio Department of Health shows a decrease from 86.5% of Ohio kindergartners who met all vaccination requirements in the 2022-2023 school year, compared to 86.2% in the 2023-2024 school year. The numbers began falling in the 2020-2021 school year when the percentage dropped sharply from 89.9% in the 2019-2020 school year to 86.5%.

Data from the state health department also showed a record percentage of reported Ohio kindergarteners with a nonmedical or a "reason of conscience" or "religious" exemption to childhood vaccines, at 4% in the 2023-2024 school year, up from 2.6% in the 2019-2020 school year.

That's above the national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which sits at 3.2% for the 2022-2023 school year and has been rising since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.