Recently, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) announced the release of a new online tool to track school immunizations. “The dashboard, which encompasses data across the 2017-18 and 2025-26 school years, reflects vaccination data on all kindergartners who attend Ohio schools,” ODH Director Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, MBA, FAAFP, said during a virtual press conference.
“It can be searched by county or individual school, and it displays not only the percentage of students who are up to date on all required immunizations and those who have exemptions, but it also has data for each individual vaccine,” Dr. Vanderhoff said.
The dashboard for the current year reflects 123,786 kindergartners across 2,097 schools, with vaccinations rates of 85.4%, 0.2% under a medical exemption, 5.4% under a non-medical exemption, and documentation missing for the remaining 9%.
“The good news here in Ohio is that our schedule of immunizations required for children attending school never changed,” Dr. Vanderhoff said.
“That schedule is guided by statute and was not impacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended changes. I continue to stand by the safety and efficacy of our childhood immunizations and also continue to recommend that parents have a conversation with their child’s primary care physician so they’re making the best and most informed decision for their child.”