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Key Points
- Florida health leaders are pushing to remove vaccination requirements for schoolchildren.
- In Michigan, no such effort has been made. The state requires a range of vaccines to enter school, depending on a student’s age and grade.
Florida state leaders, including its surgeon general, are putting pressure on lawmakers to repeal vaccination laws, including requirements that schoolchildren be vaccinated.
While there have been no apparent calls from Michigan’s leaders to repeal school vaccination requirements, the news from Florida pushes an already-escalated debate about public health into the forefront. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) blasted Florida’s announcement in a news release.
“When children are sick and miss school, parents also miss work, which not only impacts those families, but also the local economy,” wrote Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the AAP. “We are concerned that today’s announcement … will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, and have ripple effects across their community.”
Michigan does allow parents to opt their children out of the required vaccinations through a waiver from their local health department, if they claim medical, religious or philosophical reasons. The overall rate of students waiving the immunization requirements has more than doubled in a decade from 3.1% in 2015 to 6.2% in 2024, according to state data, which records immunization waiver rates for kindergarten, seventh grade and students new to Michigan schools.
The increase in waiver rates coincides with vaccine skepticism prevalent among Republican leaders. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has created upheaval within federal health agencies and no longer recommends COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. Physicians across Michigan have raised alarm over this kind of skepticism and are building a coalition to warn Americans that these efforts jeopardize public health.
On Sept. 4, Kennedy defended his views around vaccines in a U.S. Senate committee hearing where he was grilled by lawmakers about his actions leading the health department.
Michigan’s vaccination requirements for students haven’t changed. State law requires parents to submit proof of vaccination status, usually provided by pediatricians’ offices, to go to school. Here’s what those requirements entail:
Which vaccines do Michigan schools require?
Requirements vary by student grade, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Kindergartners and any 4- to 6-year-olds transferring into Michigan schools must have:
- Four doses of the diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTP, DTaP, Tdap) vaccine with one dose administered at the age of 4 or later.
- Four doses of the polio vaccine or three if the third dose was given after the age of 4.
- Two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine at or after 12 months of age.
- Three doses of the hepatitis B vaccine.
- Two doses of the chicken pox vaccine administered at or after 12 months of age, or a verified medical record that the child has had chicken pox.
Seventh graders or anyone between the ages of 7 and 18 transferring into a Michigan school must have, in addition to the vaccinations required for kindergartners:
- Four doses of diphtheria and tetanus vaccines, or three doses if the first dose was given on or after the child’s first birthday. Or, one dose of Tdap at age 11 or older, upon entering school.
- One dose of meningococcal conjugate vaccine at age 11 or older.
What schools and facilities are under vaccine requirements?
Vaccine requirements apply to both public and private schools in Michigan. Child care and preschool facilities also have vaccine requirements, starting when a child is 2-3 months old.
While state law does not require it, the state’s public universities also have vaccination policies: The University of Michigan, for instance, requires that students, faculty and staff vaccinate against measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), varicella (chicken pox), meningococcal disease (MenACWY), meningitis B, polio, and tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap).
When can a parent submit a waiver?
Parents can submit either a medical or nonmedical waiver if they want to opt their child out of mandatory vaccinations to attend school.
A student is eligible for a medical waiver if a physician signs off that a child has a condition that would prevent them from a required vaccination, according to Oakland County’s public health department.
A nonmedical waiver is required if parents do not want their child to be vaccinated for religious or philosophical reasons. Oakland County Health Division officials online caution that waivers “should not be taken lightly,” and that a child who is not fully vaccinated against preventable diseases could pose a risk to others or risk getting those illnesses themselves.
In 2014, state health officials passed a rule that any parent waiving vaccines for nonmedical reasons must receive education about vaccines from their local health department. In Oakland County, the education portion is a 30-minute information session.
Will eradicated diseases make a comeback if vaccination rates decline?
The recent resurgence of measles demonstrates how lower vaccination rates create the spread of serious illness.
In 2000, measles was considered eliminated in the United States, according to the Mayo Clinic, several decades after the MMR vaccine was first introduced. In 2025, however, the number of measles cases in the United States hit the highest level since health officials first regarded the disease as eliminated, with 1,431 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of Aug. 28, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has reported 27 cases in the state in 2025.
Measles is a vaccine-preventable disease, which can cause serious illness, disability and death in people who contract it. Michigan’s quarterly Immunization Report Card shows that just 79% of toddlers statewide have gotten at least one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine. However, 95% of the population must be immune to measles to prevent outbreaks — either through vaccination or through prior infection, according to the CDC.
Could federal policy changes impact access to vaccines in Michigan?
Yes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration creates labels for vaccines in the United States, authorizing them for use in certain populations.
In late August, the federal agency restricted the labeling for COVID-19 vaccines, changing the guidelines so they are now approved only for Americans who are 65 and older and those who are younger than 65 with a health condition that puts them at high risk for severe disease from COVID-19.
Physicians can still prescribe the vaccines to people who don’t fall within those tighter guidelines by recommending them to patients “off-label,” but it could make it more difficult for Americans who are younger than 65 and healthy to get the vaccines.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, however, continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for everyone ages 6 months and older.
Meanwhile, Kennedy Jr. has appointed vaccine skeptics to the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), pledging to review vaccine schedules. The committee is expected to meet in mid-September.
Federal changes to vaccine recommendations, the AAP said in a news release, could have ripple effects, making vaccines less available and more difficult for families to afford if insurance companies will no longer cover the cost.
The Citizens Research Council of Michigan warns that if federal vaccine recommendations change, the availability of vaccines also could decline, making it more difficult for parents to get their children vaccinated.