Florida parents are used to legislative headlines coming and going. But when lawmakers call a Special Session to revisit school vaccine rules, families like mine pay attention.
These decisions do not stay in Tallahassee. They show up in classrooms, pediatric offices, and kitchen table conversations about whether it is safe to send our kids to school.
I am a mom of school-aged children and the Director of Florida Families for Vaccines. Like many parents, I have grown accustomed to vaccines fading quietly into the background, not because they are unimportant, but because they work. For decades, Florida’s school-entry immunization standards have helped keep once-common illnesses like measles and whooping cough rare. That stability is easy to take for granted until it starts to slip.
Across the country, we are seeing warning signs again. Measles cases are rising, with outbreaks tied to communities where vaccination rates have declined. Whooping cough, a highly contagious respiratory illness that can be deadly for infants, is also on the rise. These diseases are not theoretical. They are reminders of what happens when vaccine coverage drops and the protections parents rely on begin to weaken.
Despite this context, lawmakers are heading into a Special Session where proposals to expand vaccine exemptions and loosen long‑standing safeguards are on the table. These ideas are often framed as flexibility or expanded choice.
But parents understand a basic truth. When exemption rules widen, vaccination rates fall. When vaccination rates fall, outbreaks follow.
What’s striking is how out of step this push is with public opinion. Statewide polling consistently shows that Florida voters, across political parties, regions, and demographics, overwhelmingly support maintaining school vaccine requirements.
Three in four voters support maintaining our vaccine safeguards, and majorities say they would be less likely to support a lawmaker who votes to eliminate them. That sentiment holds across regions, age groups, and party lines.
That matters for leaders of any party. Parents want schools and child care settings that are stable, predictable, and safe. They want to protect children who are too young to be fully vaccinated and those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons.
They also want to avoid the disruptions that come with outbreaks, including missed school days, time off work, and avoidable strain on local health systems. Keeping proven safeguards in place supports all of those goals.
Florida already strikes a reasonable balance. Medical exemptions exist for children who cannot safely receive certain vaccines, based on clinical judgment. Parents are not asking for new mandates or sweeping changes. We are asking lawmakers not to dismantle a system that has worked for decades.
Special sessions are meant to address urgent needs, not create unnecessary risk. At a time when preventable diseases are resurging, Florida should be reinforcing the protections that keep children healthy, not testing how much erosion the system can withstand before consequences appear.
Parents across this state are watching closely. We want our children to learn, play, and grow without fear of diseases that modern medicine already knows how to prevent.
Lawmakers walking into this Special Session would be wise to listen, not just to doctors, public health experts, parents, and survivors, but to voters who are clear about what they expect from their leaders.
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Kas Miller is Director of Florida Families for Vaccines and a Tampa-based mom of two.