How vaccinated is your child’s school district? See the numbers for SLO County
Between declining kindergarten immunization rates in California, a measles outbreak in Texas that recently exceeded 500 cases and federal threats to science research and public health programming, some San Luis Obispo County parents may be left wondering how protected their children are from the spread of preventable diseases at school.
While the state does require students to receive certain vaccines, some students can claim medical exemptions, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Additionally, under federal law, special education students can be enrolled without meeting vaccine requirements and students who are homeless or in foster care can also be admitted without records while schools work to find them or until the students receive the proper immunizations, according to the health department.
The Tribune reached out to local school districts to learn more about their vaccine policies and immunization rates as part of its Parents Central series.
And while the rates look high overall, some districts enroll more fully vaccinated students than others.
What vaccinations are required for CA schools?
Under the California School Immunization Law, children are required to receive certain immunizations in order to attend public and private elementary and secondary schools, child care centers, family day care homes, nursery schools, day nurseries and developmental centers, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade are required to be immunized against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, according to the health department.
Local schools are required by state law to verify that students either meet vaccine requirements or qualify for an acceptable exemption.
SLO County Deputy Health Officer Rick Rosen told The Tribune that vaccination regulations are vital to keeping the community healthy.
“Vaccines, just speaking generally, represent a significant step forward in the history of public health,” he said. “They’re really important and powerful tools in terms of preventing transmissible diseases.”
He added that immunizations in schools are especially important.
“Anyone who is part of a family that includes small children knows that it’s not unusual for children to bring home various viral illnesses and spread them among their family members,” Rosen said.
Rosen emphasized immunizing for measles — even incremental changes in measles vaccination rates can make a significant difference in the likelihood of an outbreak, he said.
Other people in the school environment, including both students and staff, could also have compromised immune systems, which puts them at higher risk of infection as diseases spread, he said.
“That’s why it’s important and valuable to have these vaccination laws and recommendations in place,” he said, “to prevent these sorts of outbreaks that result in hospitalizations and deaths, particularly among children, and that is something that ... as a community, we’d really like to prevent.”
While it is possible for students to claim medical exemptions from vaccines, Rosen said, it’s not common.
“There aren’t very many things that qualify individuals to be medically exempt from vaccination,” he said. “Really, the big one is a history of a severe reaction to a vaccine or the components of a vaccine. The classic is an anaphylactic allergic reaction.”
Local vaccinations rates for kindergartners have remained steady in recent years
Kindergarten vaccination rates in SLO County have remained fairly steady over the past few years, according to data from the health department.
The most recent seventh-grade data was not yet available to compare to previous years.
In the 2023-24 school year, around 94.2% of kindergartners in SLO County were fully vaccinated. That’s compared to 95.1% in 2022-23 and 94.1% in 2021-22, according to the California Department of Health.
And the current numbers are higher, on average, than the rates from 10 years ago.
In 2014-15, most SLO County districts hovered between 80-90% fully vaccinated kindergartners, according to data from the health department. This data was gathered before California tightened its laws on school vaccinations and exemptions in 2015.
By the 2016-17 school year, the vaccination rates at most public SLO County school sites had risen above 90%, data shows.
Which SLO County school districts have highest, lowest vaccination rates?
The Tribune received vaccination data from the Templeton, Lucia Mar, Paso Robles and San Luis Coastal school districts — and overall, Lucia Mar and San Luis Coastal boasted slightly higher immunization rates than the North County districts.
Around 97.6% of transitional kindergarten students and 98.7% of kindergartners in the Lucia Mar district were fully vaccinated as of the latest data, district spokesperson Amy Jacobs told The Tribune. About 98% of seventh graders were fully vaccinated as well.
In San Luis Coastal, 97% of transitional kindergarten students and kindergartners had received all their required vaccines, as had 98.5% of seventh-graders, according to the district’s lead school nurse, Grace Van Doren.
Some North County districts had slightly — but only just barely — lower rates overall.
In Templeton, 94% of transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students were fully vaccinated, whereas 97.4% of seventh-graders had received their chicken pox booster, and 94.1% had received the booster for tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough (Tdap), according to data provided by district superintendent Edd Bond.
In Paso Robles, 96% of all students were fully vaccinated as of the latest data, according to the district. Around 97.9% of seventh-graders were up to date on their Tdap booster and 97.9% were fully vaccinated for chicken pox , the data showed.
The Atascadero district did not provide percentages to The Tribune, but did provide some raw numbers.
According to Stacey Phillips, executive assistant to the superintendent, eight transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students in the district were not fully vaccinated. Six were on track to receive the required immunizations, while two had waivers.
Meanwhile, four seventh-graders had not received all immunizations — one was on track and three had waivers, Phillips said.
The Tribune also reached out to Coast Unified, but the district did not provide its immunization rates as of Monday.
What about measles vaccines?
Two districts provided The Tribune with additional details about measles immunizations in particular, given recent outbreaks elsewhere in the United States.
In Lucia Mar, 97.9% of transitional kindergartners and 99.2% of kindergartners had received their vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, Jacobs reported.
About 99.7% of seventh-graders in the district were up to date.
In Paso Robles, 100% of seventh-graders had received their measles vaccines, according to the district office.
Meanwhile, seven students in either transitional kindergarten or kindergarten were missing the vaccine, the district said.
The district did not provide the measles rate for transitional kindergarten and kindergarten as a percentage.
Additional details on school immunizations can be seen using EdSource’s interactive map tool, which shows the 2023-24 vaccination rates for specific school campuses in San Luis Obispo County and elsewhere in the state.
EdSource also published a database that allows visitors to search immunization rates by district and school.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to mention an interactive map and database recently created by EdSource, which allow visitors to search immunization rates and see the percentages for specific school sites in SLO County.
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