Vaccination Policies and Rates of Exemption from Immunization, 2005–2011

Abstract

To the Editor: We computed the annual change in the rates of nonmedical exemptions from school immunization requirements and com-pared these rates between states that allow phil-osophical exemptions and states that allow only religious exemptions. We also compared states with respect to how difficult it is to obtain non-medical exemptions because of certain adminis-trative procedures. We used data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for school years 2005–2006 through 2010– 2011. 1 State-specific categories of difficulty in obtaining exemptions were based on several fac-tors: whether completion of a standardized form was permissible, as opposed to a letter from a parent; where the parent obtained the form (i.e., Overall Results (excluding Mississippi and West Virginia)