{"id":809766,"date":"2026-08-11T06:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/809766\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T06:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:24:17","slug":"texas-vaccine-requirements-unchanged-this-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/809766\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas vaccine requirements unchanged this school year"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While vaccine requirements have not changed for Texas students <\/a>this year \u2014 despite federal efforts to drop and space out some inoculations \u2014 Becca Harkleroad understands how many parents are confused.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite all the confusion that hits the news \u2026 nothing\u2019s changed,\u201d said Harkleroad, the executive director of the Texas School Nurses Organization.<\/p>\n

In January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped the rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccines from the recommended list. But a federal judge in Massachusetts \u2014 and a Biden appointee \u2014 halted that move in March<\/a>, keeping the pre-2026 vaccine recommendations in place. The federal government is appealing that decision<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Then on Monday, President Donald Trump ordered the splitting up of the common measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots. The three have been combined into a single shot since 1971<\/a> to help ensure children do not delay or miss doses and after hearing from parents who wanted to reduce the number of doctor visits needed to complete vaccinations.<\/p>\n

But because each state, including Texas, is able to set up its own recommendations, Trump\u2019s move serves as a guideline, not a mandate, the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed. <\/p>\n

According to the state\u2019s health department, nothing has changed for the 2026-2027<\/a> school year. <\/p>\n

Any changes to Texas\u2019 requirements would have to be made by the Legislature which will meet again in January, according to the state health agency. The Republican-controlled state Legislature has generally embraced policies that weaken vaccine mandates, including last year\u2019s passage of a bill<\/a> that made vaccine exemption forms more accessible to parents. <\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has changed for vaccine requirements in Texas at this time,\u201d Harkleroad said after Trump\u2019s action. \u201cIt\u2019s very concerning to me that the president\u2019s executive order raised the age-old questions about vaccines \u2014 their safety, efficacy, and the autism link. That science is settled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebecca Hardy, president of Texans for Vaccine Choice, praised Trump\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cTFVC applauds Trump\u2019s EO that moves federal vaccine policy toward greater informed consent and vaccine safety, but Texas law still needs to change,\u201d she said, adding that it\u2019s not her group\u2019s priority to continue \u201cchasing an ever-changing vaccine schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, she wants to see Texas expand and strengthen exemption rights. \u201cWhen Texans have the right to exempt themselves, the specific vaccines on the schedule become irrelevant,\u201d Hardy said.<\/p>\n

For decades, the CDC has relied on a panel of vaccine experts to make recommendations about what vaccines should be administered to children, which informs various states\u2019 vaccine requirements to enroll in public schools and how doctors counsel patients. But last year, the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members<\/a> of the nation\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, and replaced them with vaccine policy critics.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Monday order waters down longstanding vaccine schedule-setting procedures even more by sidestepping the CDC and ACIP altogether and instead tasking the U.S. Health and Human Services\u2019 Safer Childhood Vaccines task force with reporting back to the president on implementation of his order.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today,\u201d Trump said while signing the order on Monday. \u201cEffective immediately, my administration is recognizing gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations for only 11 core vaccinations<\/a> against the most serious and dangerous diseases along with the MMR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump further supported that the five vaccines that the feds tried to drop from the recommendation list in January be allowed to move forward, which does not affect the judge\u2019s March decision. Trump also directed the U.S. attorney general to employ legal challenges against states that violate children\u2019s rights to religious or medical vaccination exemptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Immunization Partnership is alarmed by the administration\u2019s executive order on childhood vaccines,\u201d said Rekha Lakshmanan, executive director of the Houston-based The Immunization Partnership, a vaccine education and advocacy group. \u201cRather than building trust, it adds to the confusing messages parents are receiving while Texas confronts declining vaccination rates and outbreaks of preventable diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlikely to face such federal scrutiny on exemption violations, Texas has long allowed parents to exempt children from vaccines, expanding exemptions reasons widely in 2005 to include \u201cconscientious\u201d objections. Then last year, lawmakers made exemptions even easier to obtain by making the exemption forms downloadable. Previously, parents had to request a form from DSHS to be mailed to them. <\/p>\n

Since Texas parents have easier access to exemption forms, the number of K-12 students with an exemption increased in Texas despite a record-breaking measles outbreak<\/a> that began in West Texas last year. Two children died and 762 people were infected in Texas in 2025. This year, the number of measles cases in the United States has already surpassed <\/a>the number seen nationally last year. <\/p>\n

Last year, there was a slight increase<\/a> in the measles vaccination rate for Texas kindergarteners, but that comes after years of decreases. The Texas Tribune offers a way to check a school\u2019s vaccination rate here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Compared to the previous school year, 18 fewer counties had kindergarten measles vaccination rates at the 95% benchmark for herd immunity. The number of counties where at least 5% of kindergarteners had a conscientious exemption for measles on file increased from 98 to 132, representing 52% of all counties. Ninety six of 252 counties met the kindergarten benchmark of 95% vaccination against measles<\/p>\n

So far this summer, public health officials have seen a drop in the number of children who typically turn out for publicly funded vaccinations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers are way down,\u201d said Dr. Philip Huang, the director of Dallas Health and Human Services. <\/p>\n

He attributed the drop to confusion over what is required and stepped-up immigration enforcement. Like last year, Huang says, fewer Hispanic children are turning up at back-to-school vaccination events typically held during the summer months. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been reporting a large number of drops in our Hispanic numbers. We\u2019re hearing about the concerns over the ICE situation,\u201d he said, referring to the increase in federal immigration enforcement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[12,97,252,253,2186,46047,138963],"class_list":["post-809766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-donald-trump","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-republicans","tag-texas-legislature","tag-well-c-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}