This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for their daily newsletter.
The state is auditing 428 of its public schools, including six in west Contra Costa County and seven in east county, because more than 10% of their kindergartners or seventh-grade students were not fully vaccinated as of last school year. An additional 80 schools did not report their vaccination information to the state.
Shifting federal policies and new measles cases are again making vaccination a national conversation. Last year, there were 2,255 measles cases nationwide — the most since the 1990s, including the first one in Contra Costa County since 2023. The person who contracted the highly contagious virus in December was a healthy young adult who had been fully vaccinated against measles abroad, said Dr. Lisa Rodelo, deputy health officer at Contra Costa Health.
The California Department of Public Health reported 25 cases of measles in the state in 2025. Just last week, an unvaccinated student in Napa County was diagnosed with measles after being exposed to it while visiting South Carolina.
The number of schools on the state vaccination audit list is lower than in the previous two years, but 110 of the schools have been on the list for at least three years.
Having fewer schools on the audit list this year doesn’t necessarily mean more students are being vaccinated. In 2023-24, the most recent year student vaccination data is available, vaccination rates for kindergartners dropped by nearly half a percentage point to 93.7%.
West Contra Costa schools with low vaccination rates
Stege Elementary, 48 kindergartners
Vista Academy, 23 seventh-graders
Peres Elementary, 81 kindergartners
Ford Elementary, 68 kindergartners
Downer Elementary, 47 kindergartners
Tara Hills Elementary, 43 kindergartners
These schools are among 13 schools countywide (and 420 statewide) that as of 2025 had more than 10% of kindergartners or seventh-graders without all of their required vaccinations. You can search for other schools via this interactive map. Data: California Department of Education and EdSource Analysis
“I think California’s still in a good place in terms of the protections that we have,” said Catherine Flores Martin, executive director of the California Immunization Coalition. “A dip in California can be a couple hundred students, and that’s a lot of students, but compared to the rest of the nation we are ahead.”
Which vaccinations are required?
California requires that children be immunized against 10 serious communicable diseases: diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (bacterial meningitis), measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, rubella, tetanus, hepatitis B and chicken pox — to attend public or private schools and child care centers.
Studies have linked clusters of unimmunized children to outbreaks of measles, pertussis and varicella or chicken pox.
California law requires students to be immunized against 10 serious communicable diseases. Proof of immunization is required in kindergarten and seventh grade, as well as upon entering child care, transitional kindergarten, or when transferring schools from out of state.
Where to get your child’s immunizations
What: Contra Costa Health offers free vaccine clinics for children without health insurance.
Where: West County Health Center, 13601 San Pablo Ave., 2nd floor
When: Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
More info: Call (925) 313-6740
Students who are overdue for their vaccinations, or who have been admitted to schools conditionally while they catch up on vaccines, are not fully vaccinated, according to the state.
California offers exemptions for children in special education, home-based private schools, and students with medical exemptions. But in 2015, the state Legislature added additional oversight to medical exemptions, requiring that the California Department of Public Health review exemptions at schools with an immunization rate of less than 95%, or if a doctor has written more than five exemptions in a year.
It is one of four states, including Connecticut, Maine and New York, that do not allow personal exemptions from school vaccination requirements.
Schools not compliant with vaccine requirements can lose funds
School districts found to be out of compliance with the state’s immunization regulations can lose average daily attendance (ADA) funding for students who were not fully vaccinated, said Scott Roark, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education. Given that the WCCUSD is already experiencing budget shortfalls due to declining enrollment, it says, losing funding could possibly exacerbate its precarious budget situation. Richmondside reached out to the district for comment but didn’t hear back as of publication time.
“If an LEA (local education agency) continues to remain out of compliance, they will continue to receive audit findings and face the associated ADA and funding loss,” Roark said in an email. “In addition, any audit finding requires the LEA to develop a corrective action plan describing how they will remedy the issue and prevent it from recurring in future years.”
Although students attending virtual and nonclassroom-based schools, such as Vista, which is on the list of non-compliant schools, are not subject to state immunization requirements, the schools are still required to maintain immunization records for those students.
In the three years prior to the 2024-25 school year, 62 schools statewide — seven charter and 55 traditional public schools — lost some funding because students were admitted to school without vaccinations, according to the CDE. Details about how much money was withheld were not provided.
Map: 428 California schools flagged for audit due to low vaccination rates
Oakland schools audited again
Urban and suburban schools made appearances on the list as well. The Oakland Unified School District had 28 of its 53 elementary schools and six of its 11 middle schools on the state audit list last school year. At the top of Oakland Unified’s list was Elmhurst United Middle School, with 63% of its 246 seventh grade students in need of vaccinations.
The Bay Area district has 44,647 students, according to CDE. Oakland Unified has not lost any average daily attendance funding despite having 14 elementary schools and four middle schools on the state audit list for three years, according to district officials.
School staff review immunization records and begin contacting the families of students in need of vaccines each summer, said John Sasaki, Oakland Unified communications director. Families are then given information about where to obtain vaccinations, he said.
The district has partnered with the Alameda County Public Health Department to offer on-site vaccination clinics at schools with lower vaccination rates, as well as back-to-school clinics. The district is planning back-to-school clinics again this spring, Sasaki said.
There has been progress. Twelve Oakland schools that made the audit list all three years have improved their vaccination rates. Most notable was Markham Elementary, which went from 65.2% of its kindergartners lacking vaccinations in 2023 to 26.5% under-vaccinated last school year.
CDC schedule could put kids behind
Vaccine hesitancy, fueled by the Covid pandemic, has reduced vaccination rates across the country. Now, there is concern that a decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to deemphasize some vaccines will reduce rates even further.
Earlier this month, without traditional scientific review, the CDC rolled back its recommendation that all children be vaccinated against the flu, hepatitis A, meningococcal disease, rotavirus and RSV. Instead, the CDC is recommending that only some high-risk children or children whose parents have consulted a doctor receive the vaccine. The CDC similarly scaled back its recommendations for the Covid and hepatitis B vaccines for infants last year.
The decision doesn’t impact California’s school vaccination requirements, but could result in more students falling behind on vaccinations as parents forgo immunizations previously recommended at birth, said Flores Martin of the California Immunization Coalition.
“Even though parents may not be in agreement with this administration, I think it’s still planting doubt, or it’s still planting concern in people’s minds,” she said.
Many parents are confused about the conflicting information they are hearing about vaccines, so they avoid making a decision and wait to vaccinate their children, according to Flores Martin.
The California Department of Public Health now recommends parents adhere to the American Academy of Pediatrics vaccination schedule.
“I think there are still parents that are working hard to avoid vaccination,” Flores Martin said. “But once children are enrolled in public school or day care, they don’t have that many options in California. They have to vaccinate.”
It would be interesting to do an article following Cheryl Cotton for a week and seeing what she does. Insiders are telling me she is not doing much. The district need to sell or leasing land, become a landlord to provide teachers with housing, create a foundation to invest money and write grants among other things. Cheryl supposedly got a 20% raise from the last superintendent but treats meetings like a therapy session for her self and her poor mother. Friends hiring friends often doesn’t work – case in point.
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