Minnesota now has one of the nation's lowest kindergarten measles vaccination rates

Yuqing Liu, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Nov 19, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota has seen one of the nation’s sharpest drops in measles herd immunity among kindergartners, falling well below the threshold needed to prevent outbreaks. A rise in nonmedical exemptions, especially at private schools, is one factor behind the decline.

New measles cases have been reported in Dakota and Olmsted counties since the beginning of the school year, raising Minnesota’s total to 24 confirmed cases in 2025. It’s one of the highest totals in two decades.

In the hopes of establishing an early warning system for outbreaks, the Minnesota Department of Health is starting to report measles detected in sewer samples, similar to the public health technique that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the pandemic, measles vaccination rates, usually administered via the MMR vaccine that also covers mumps and rubella and required for incoming kindergartners, have fallen in most states.

In the last school year, the rates in some states dropped sharply, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alaska and Idaho. More than 15 states now have fewer than 90% of kindergartners vaccinated against measles, well under the recommended 95% threshold for herd immunity.

Minnesota experienced one of the biggest drops compared with its pre-pandemic level, from 92.5% to 86.5%, well below the U.S. average.

The steepest drops in kindergarten MMR rates have been in private and charter schools, according to data from the Minnesota Department of Health.

While full-vaccination rates at public schools dropped 6 percentage points, private schools’ vaccination rates dropped nearly 10, and at charter schools, it’s down nearly a dozen points.

Private school parents are increasingly filing nonmedical exemptions for the MMR vaccine, but the process, previously called conscientious objections, are becoming more common at all types of schools.

Last school year, about 1 in 10 kindergartners at Minnesota private schools had a nonmedical exemption for the MMR vaccine. At public schools, that was 1 in 20, and at charter schools about 1 in 25.

Measles is highly contagious and can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves. The virus can be especially deadly for young children; two unvaccinated children in west Texas died earlier this year amid outbreaks concentrated there.

Search below for your school’s MMR full-vaccination and exemption rates for kindergartners in the 2024–25 school year. Schools with at least 95% of students fully vaccinated are considered at herd immunity. Those with lower coverage — where some students may have received only one dose, called “partial vaccination” — have not fully reached herd immunity. Schools where more than 5% of students have any kind of exemption are considered to have no herd immunity.

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