New York City health and education officials are urging parents to double-check that their children are up to date on their vaccinations as schools return to session.<\/p>\n
The vaccination campaign is launching not only as schools prepare to reopen but also as parents face an onslaught of shifting federal messaging on vaccines, which public health officials see as undermining longstanding guidance in New York and other states.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order<\/a> endorsing a pared-down vaccine schedule for children. He also called on federal health officials to present a plan for breaking up the standard, combined vaccine protecting against measles, mumps and rubella. The president also called for the protection of parental rights and religious freedom regarding vaccines.<\/p>\n New York, however, isn’t budging. The vaccine requirements for the 2026-2027 school year remain unchanged. Children are required to be up to date on shots protecting them against about a dozen vaccine-preventable diseases between Pre-K and 12th grade.<\/p>\n Still, the federal shifts around vaccine messaging, and attempts to change vaccine policy during Trump\u2019s second term, have sowed confusion and made some parents more hesitant to get their children vaccinated, said Dr. Arturo Brito, president and CEO of the Children\u2019s Health Fund, which operates mobile health clinics that offer vaccines in New York City and other parts of the country.<\/p>\n \u201cParents are now considering delaying vaccines or not getting them at all,\u201d Brito said. That hesitancy, he added, largely affects infants and younger children who are not yet in school.<\/p>\n New York remains one of just a handful of states across the country that doesn\u2019t allow religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements \u2014 a status that has kept vaccination rates high among kindergarteners here, even as they have dipped in other states, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that policy continues to face challenges in court.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what to know about New York\u2019s back-to-school vaccine requirements, childhood vaccination rates and the future of religious exemptions.<\/p>\n What shots do children in New York need to attend school?<\/p>\n Students who attend school statewide, from Pre-K through grade 12, are required to get age-appropriate immunizations against diseases including measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, varicella, meningitis, and hepatitis B.<\/p>\n Children under age 5 enrolled in Pre-K or day care must be immunized against influenza and pneumococcal disease.<\/p>\n The state Department of Health<\/a> and New York City\u2019s Department of Education<\/a> offer comprehensive guides to which shots are required for each grade.<\/p>\n What happens if my child is not up-to-date on their shots by the time school starts?<\/p>\n New York City public schools will notify parents<\/a> if their child is missing any vaccine doses and tell parents how many days they have to get them. Children can be excluded from the classroom if they don\u2019t get vaccinated by the deadline and must show proof of vaccination to return to school, according to the city\u2019s Department of Education.<\/p>\n How high are NY\u2019s childhood vaccination rates?<\/p>\n In the 2025-2026 school year, more than 97% of kindergarteners in New York state had their measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, shots, compared with just over 92% nationally, according to the latest data<\/a> from the CDC.<\/p>\n Nationally, the share of kindergarteners who are up to date on those shots has declined in recent years as the number of kids taking advantage of non-medical exemptions to school vaccine requirements has increased, CDC data show.<\/p>\n However, that has not been an issue in New York. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo eliminated such non-medical exemptions in 2019 following a severe measles outbreak in the state.<\/p>\n The latest federal data suggests New York\u2019s strong school vaccine requirements have helped protect the state from a downward trend in childhood vaccination that\u2019s affecting other states.<\/p>\n What about kids who are not yet in school?<\/p>\n City data<\/a> on vaccination rates among 2-year-olds show that some younger children who may not be in school yet lag in receiving their first dose of the MMR vaccine.<\/p>\n Only 89% of 2-year-olds in the five boroughs have received that first dose, with the rates varying by geography and ethnicity, according to city data. That\u2019s down from 93% in 2024.<\/p>\n The CDC continues to recommend that children receive their first dose of the MMR vaccine between 12 and 15 months \u2014 a recommendation also endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has become an additional guiding source for state policy.<\/p>\n How secure is NY\u2019s policy on religious exemptions?<\/p>\n New York has so far prevailed in the face of legal challenges to its policy eliminating religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements \u2014 but the battle may not be over yet. Trump\u2019s recent executive order directs the U.S. attorney general to help pursue legal challenges against states whose vaccine laws restrict religious freedom or parental rights.<\/p>\n Amish New Yorkers, who have received thousands of dollars in fines<\/a> from the state health department for allowing unvaccinated children to attend school, have led the charge against the state\u2019s vaccine requirements, arguing in court that the lack of religious exemptions violates their constitutional rights.<\/p>\n A federal appeals court in New York ruled against them in 2025, upholding the state\u2019s policy.<\/p>\n The Supreme Court took up the case, Miller v. McDonald, last year, but declined to make its own ruling on the merits. Instead, the Supreme Court ordered the appeals court to reconsider its decision in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling on parental say over what\u2019s taught in schools.<\/p>\n New York\u2019s Second Circuit appeals court issued a similar decision<\/a> the second time around.<\/p>\n