As vaccination rates drop, data shows more than 200 DFW schools at higher risk of measles outbreak
DALLAS - The number of Texas parents opting out of giving their kids school vaccines has reached an all-time high and it has doctors worried about possible widespread outbreaks of diseases like the measles.
Measles, a highly contagious and potentially deadly virus, was once officially declared eradicated in U.S. but cases are now showing up across the country.
A CBS News Texas I-Team investigation identified more than 240 DFW-area schools (160 public, 80 private) where school vaccination rates are below the 95% threshold that the CDC identifies as crucial for protecting a community from measles.
Texas law allows parents to file a conscientious exception to the state required immunizations – no religious or medical explanation is needed. Among the seven required vaccinations to attend public school in Texas is the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
In the past decade, according to Texas health department data, the percentage of Texas kindergarteners whose parents filed a vaccination exemption has nearly tripled from 1.29% in 2013-14 to 3.24% in 2022-23.
"I am very concerned," said Cristina Tamez, MD, a pediatrician at Parkland Health in Dallas. "My biggest concern, as a pediatrician and as a parent, is we are going to start seeing outbreak of these diseases that we thought were eradicated."
Liz Pinon, a mother of 11-year-old triplets with compromised immune systems, said she's too worried about the growing number of unvaccinated children in her children's school.
"If my kids get sick, it's not like your average child. It will likely be a stay in the hospital. It will be more detrimental to them, and it might shorten their life span," explained the Crowley mother. "I think we have to think of the greater good."
While COVID vaccines are not among the required vaccinations to attend school in Texas, local doctors said they've noticed more hesitancy from some parents to long-standing school vaccines since the pandemic. Data from the Texas Department of State Health Services backs this observation. School vaccine exemption rates have increased the most in the past three years.
Rebecca Hardy, president of Texans for Vaccine Choice, said her organization that opposes vaccine mandates has also seen more parents, since the pandemic, interested in learning about state's school vaccine exemption process.
"I think all Americans should research any vaccine that they're about to inject into their bodies," Hardy said. "I encourage all parents to talk to their doctor and make these informed decisions together. What we have seen, however, is doctors across the state are dismissing parents for even asking a question about vaccines."
Tamez said the opposite is true for her and the doctors she works with.
"I encourage parents to do their research and to look up any question they might have about any vaccines," she said. "We can discuss it and, hopefully, with time, they can see that these are safe vaccines and not only safe but effective in preventing these diseases."
After a measles outbreak in 2019, lawmakers in the state of Washington passed a bill ending philosophical exemptions for the measles vaccine. The result, according to the state's health department, has been increased vaccination rates and no major outbreaks.
Other states, in recent years, have too limited exemptions in an effort the reverse the vaccination trend. Texas is not among them.
The Texas Department of State Health Services publishes online conscientious exemption data by county and school district.
Vaccine exemption data by individual school campus can be requested through local school districts, although, districts are not required by state law to keep track of the data at the campus level.
Arlington ISD, Garland ISD, and McKinney ISD were among the small number of North Texas districts that told the I-Team it does not keep track of vaccination exemption rates at a campus level.
