COVID
Record Number of Louisiana Parents Opt Out of Back-to-School Vaccines
The number of children starting school with vaccination exemptions has more than doubled in recent years, according to CDC data.
More Louisiana parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children before sending them to school this year. The rate of parents opting out of standard vaccines is the highest it’s been in a decade, NOLA.com reported this week.
The number of children starting school with vaccination exemptions has more than doubled in recent years, according to New Orleans CBS affiliate 4WWL.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data show the percentage of Louisiana kindergartners who had an exemption from one or more vaccines jumped from 1.1% in the 2022-23 school year to 2.3% in the 2023-24 school year. Figures for the 2024-25 school year are not yet available.
The CDC’s website details the spike:
Overall, vaccine exemptions — particularly for non-medical reasons, such as religious or philosophical concerns — across the U.S. are on the rise, though at a less drastic rate than in Louisana, according to CDC data.
In 2022-23, roughly 3% of all U.S. kindergartners had an exemption from one or more vaccines.
Louisiana passes laws to amplify parents’ right to opt out
Before this year, Louisana law allowed parents to opt out of school immunization requirements as long as they presented their dissent in writing.
However, state lawmakers in 2024 passed two additional measures that amplify parents’ right to opt out of vaccine requirements for school attendance.
Act No. 674 states that students can’t be required to have a COVID-19 vaccine. Act No. 675 requires schools to include exemption information when communicating with families about vaccines. The new laws took effect Aug. 1.
Both new vaccine laws — authored by Rep. Kathy Edmonston and signed by Gov. Jeff Landry — were the result of pushback from previous COVID-19 pandemic mandates and restrictions, Shreveport Times reported.
Edmonston said during debate over the bills, “The intent of this bill is to stop mandates. … It doesn’t have anything to do with yay or nay on the vaccines; we just don’t want mandates.”
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Schools must inform parents of right to opt out
The New Orleans public school district in December 2021 became one of the first in the U.S. to mandate the COVID-19 shot for all grades.
The Louisiana Department of Health in late 2021 proposed a statewide requirement that students get the COVID-19 vaccine but then decided against it before the launch of the 2022-23 school year, according to New Orleans Public Radio.
As of Aug. 1, when the newly passed laws took effect, the New Orleans public school district cannot require COVID-19 vaccination as a condition for school attendance.
Louisiana’s Department of Education Superintendent Cade Brumley supported the law requiring schools to inform parents of their right to apply for a vaccine exemption.
The right to opt out often wasn’t clearly conveyed by schools. “It’s been a bit of a hidden secret,” Brumley told Shreveport Times. “We’re trying to illuminate that right for parents.”
The Louisana Department of Health still “strongly encourages age-appropriate vaccinations for children.”
Charles Stoecker, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, told 4WWL that the increased number of exemptions presents a risk. “As a parent, you want your kids to be in a place that is safe … If the other kids in your class are vaccinated, that’s more likely to protect your kid.”
The Defender reached out to Louisiana’s Department of Health and Department of Education for comment but did not receive a response by the deadline.
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