Wisconsin saw just 16 school districts reach the threshold where at least 95% of students met minimum immunization requirements during the 2025-26 school year, down from 101 districts in 2019, according to a report released Thursday by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. The findings arrived the same day that state health officials announced the state's first measles death in 36 years — an infant who died amid an ongoing outbreak. The research shows that declining student vaccination rates are leaving communities across Wisconsin increasingly vulnerable to disease outbreaks.
Statewide, 87.4% of Wisconsin K-12 students met all minimum immunization requirements during the most recent school year, according to the report. That figure represents a slight improvement from the previous year but remains near a historic low for the state. Personal conviction waivers, which allow families to opt out of required vaccinations, rose to 6.5% in 2026, compared to less than 2% during the 1990s. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported that approximately 85% of Wisconsin kindergarteners have received both MMR vaccine doses, compared to about 92% nationally. Both figures fall below the roughly 95% coverage needed to prevent measles from spreading readily. The state has reported 431 measles cases across 13 counties this year, with nine hospitalizations, and nearly all cases have involved unvaccinated individuals.
"Anytime a single community is vulnerable, that does put the rest of us at risk," said Sara Shaw, deputy research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum. The infant death is one of eight reported by state health departments nationwide this year, including six in Pennsylvania, one in New York, and one in Wisconsin. Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Wisconsin's chief medical officer and state epidemiologist for communicable diseases, stated that "measles is now spreading because there are enough people who are susceptible to infection for the virus to continue finding new hosts."
The report points to several contributing factors behind the declining vaccination rates, including barriers to healthcare access and the increase in personal conviction waivers. Dr. Stephanie Schauer, the state's immunization program director, pointed to growing vaccine skepticism following the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that more parents are having questions about vaccines and there's more misinformation circulating. Officials also noted that not all cases are connected to the original outbreak in southwestern Wisconsin — some infections have been introduced through out-of-state travel, including families returning from weddings and funerals. Shaw noted that in a connected society, disease often doesn't stay localized for very long, putting entire regions at risk when vaccination coverage drops.
The Department of Health Services has updated its guidance to recommend an early MMR vaccine dose for certain infants between six and 11 months old who face increased exposure risk. Westergaard emphasized that community vaccination is especially important for protecting infants too young to be vaccinated, stating that "for families with babies younger than six months or others who cannot be vaccinated, the most important protection is making sure that the people around them are immune." He noted that vaccination once made measles so rare that many physicians had never encountered a case, calling it an extraordinary public health achievement — but one that depends on maintaining high levels of immunity in communities.