Last updated: January, 2024

Author: Immunization Program, Vermont Department of Health

The percent of students provisionally admitted to kindergarten remained steady for many years. Recent years have seen higher numbers of kindergarteners provisionally admitted. Specifically, for 2020-2021, disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic likely resulted in children missing well-child visits where they would normally have received scheduled vaccines, and overburdened school staff not having the capacity to follow up when immunizaton records are missing.

We hope to see this number continue to decrease below 5% again in the near future.

Students are provisionally admitted if they are not up-to-date on all required immunizations but are in the process of complying or have a signed exemption. 

Vermont school immunization regulations require that all children be vaccinated prior to enrollment in a public or private school. This protects school-age children, their families, school staff, and all Vermonters from outbreaks of preventable infectious disease.

The Health Department website has clear guidance and provides forms and templates for use by schools. Health Department staff visit school nurses to provide education and provide assistance in meeting the immunization requirements.

• School nurses and administrators
• Primary care providers and staff
• Offices of Local Health public health nurses

Factors contributing to the decreased provisional admittance rate include: excellent follow-up by school nurses with support from school administrators, outreach by Health Department public health nurses and increased parental awareness of Vermont’s immunization rules.

Continued education for parents and schools, enforcement of school immunization regulations and ongoing evaluation.

The year reported corresponds to the beginning of the school year. The data for 2022 is the % of students provisionally admitted for the 2022-2023 school year.

These aggregated data are reported to the Vermont Department of Health by the school nurse or administrator in all Vermont public schools and independent schools by January 1, each year.

You can find more information and related data on the Department of Health Immunization Program School Vaccination dashboard.