Michigan schools should disclose vaccination rates to parents, lawmakers say

Michigan House Democrats introduced bills to increase visibility on vaccination rates and reinforce the state’s authority on immunization policy
The legislation comes amid federal changes to childhood vaccine policy, like the rollback of the hepatitis B shot for newborn infants
Most of Michigan’s middle schools, kindergartens and child care center buildings have vaccination rates of less than 95%

A group of Michigan House Democrats want to make it easier for parents to know how many kids in schools and child care centers are vaccinated.

Lawmakers introduced a package of bills Wednesday that also call for strengthening the state’s immunization authority in reaction to shifting federal guidelines.

Sponsors say the 11-bill “Empowering Parents, Protecting Communities” package will better inform families of building-specific immunization rates, reinforce state-level authority in public health, codify existing policies and maintain the availability of vaccines in Michigan to those who seek them out.

State Rep. Matt Longjohn, D-Portage, said the changes under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, and related decisions at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sowing “chaos, confusion and distrust” among the American public, increasing the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy.

“These reckless actions that RFK’s team of anti-science folks at the CDC are taking require state level policy actions in response,” Longjohn said during a news conference ahead of the bills’ introduction.

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Michigan has resorted to adopting its own countervailing guidance as the White House shifts its position on childhood shots for COVID-19 and other communicable diseases.

Last week, a federal immunization advisory board voted to remove its recommendation that newborn infants receive the hepatitis B vaccine. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services decried the decision, urging state residents to follow the vaccination schedules laid out by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

The public health decisions originating from the Trump administration prompted Democratic US Rep. Haley Stevens on Wednesday to announce that she’d introduce articles of impeachment against Kennedy to remove him from leading the country’s health agency.

Herd immunity in schools

Most of Michigan’s middle schools, kindergartens and child care center buildings have vaccination rates of less than 95%, according to available state data. The 95% standard is used by the CDC and the World Health Organization as a herd immunity benchmark, and communities that fall below the threshold are more at risk for outbreaks of infectious diseases like measles.

The state publishes vaccination rates by school and child care building. But Democratic lawmakers are aiming to make the information more accessible to the public by requiring schools to publish anonymized data on their websites and in prominent locations within the building’s main office. Parents and guardians would be sent an immunization status report of their child’s facility starting June 2028.

“It’s not enough for the state health department to just have these building level data on a website or in a spreadsheet someplace,” said Longjohn. “We have to activate this information.”

Michigan for Vaccine Choice, a group that opposes immunization mandates in favor of individual choice, is skeptical the legislation will protect the state’s communities.

While officials with the advocacy group were unable to review the bill language before its introduction to the state Legislature, spokesperson Connie Johnson said the bills would “codify” existing administrative rules as law.

“Make no mistake, this is an obvious attempt to nullify the right to a religious exemption, and certainly a philosophical exemption as well,” Johnson said in an email to Bridge, adding that the state health department is “imposing more strict compliance” on schools while “pulling resources from actual education.”

Ingham Intermediate School District Superintendent Jason Mellema expressed reservations about making school districts post the information.

“I think schools would be very concerned without having more research that supports what the benefits would be” of posting the vaccination rates, Mellema told Bridge.

He said vaccination rates rarely come up in conversations with local superintendents, unlike during the pandemic.

But vaccine waivers and state rules repeatedly came up during the public comment position of the State Board of Education meeting Tuesday. Several people raised concerns about instances where people have been harmed by vaccines, the waiver process and the potential to violate student anonymity.

The state education board approved a resolution in September calling for the state Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services to work together to share vaccine resources with school districts. The resolution calls on the departments to provide information “such that schools can present public reports on those rates to the parents of their students.”

No House Republicans are co-sponsoring the bill package.

House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said he does not know the details of the bills. “My instinct is you’re not going to be seeing a lot of movement on this.”

Skipping the vax

Michigan’s school vaccination waiver rate rose to 6.2% in 2024, its highest level in more than 10 years.

Michigan students and their parents have been required to discuss their decision to avoid immunization with their local health department since 2015, a decision the state health department made to decrease the number of exemptions. Recent legislative efforts are seeking to undo those rules and expand civil rights protections for those who refuse vaccination.

Family physicians like Dr. Allan Wilke, a former chair at Western Michigan University’s medical school, note that while “vaccines are incredibly effective,” the current politicization of science has cast “seeds of doubt” on their benefits.

“The notion that vaccines are not safe goes back decades now, but it’s been a fringe issue,” said Wilke at the bill’s press conference. “It’s only now coming to the fore.”

Wilke said vaccines have successfully reduced the number of cases of polio and other infectious diseases in the US, though the lack of visible illnesses have also made people “complacent.”