To attend or not to attend? The effect of school-immunization exemption policies on enrollment rates for prekindergarten, kindergarten and elementary aged youth.

To attend or not to attend? The effect of school-immunization exemption policies on enrollment rates for prekindergarten, kindergarten and elementary aged youth. Vaccine. 2020 Feb 06;: Authors: Zier ER, Bradford WD Abstract There is no national immunization policy in the United States, and the strictness of regulations allowing vaccine exemption for school attendance varies greatly by state. Despite substantial evidence on the safety and health benefits of immunization, there has been a recent upsurge in skepticism amongst parents regarding vaccine safety and efficacy for their children. To measure the effect of strictness of immunization policy on enrollment rates for school aged children, we utilize fixed effects regression. We construct a panel of data on county level enrollment rate and county characteristics from the American Community Survey, and utilize a recently validated measure of state vaccination policy effectiveness to identify level of strictness amongst states. Given the positive effects early education has for a child's future, paired with the importance of public health, understanding these outcomes may be of interest to policymakers. We find that as children exit the 3-and 4-year-old age cohort and enter the 5-to 9-year-old cohort, stricter vaccination policy has a positive effect on overall enrollment and, specifically, public school enrollment. We also find that female 3-and 4-year-olds' enrollment is more negati...
Source: Vaccine - Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Tags: Vaccine Source Type: research