Trump administration may be considering eliminating school vaccine mandates, allies suggest

A handful of states are seeking to lift vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, with varying degrees of success, potentially teeing up the federal government to lift such requirements nationwide.

Vaccine skepticism has spread virulently throughout the US for years, with vaccination rates for measles, polio, chickenpox, diphtheria and whooping cough falling in the last decade. 

Among the leaders of the vaccine skepticism movement continues to be Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, whose jurisdiction covers immunization scheduling.

The CDC, now under leadership chosen by Kennedy, has updated its childhood vaccine schedule, decreasing the number of routinely recommended shots from 17 to 11.

Under the revised guidelines, several vaccines, including those for rotavirus, COVID, influenza, hepatitis A and B and meningitis, are no longer universally recommended for all children. Instead, they have been moved to categories such as ‘shared clinical decision-making’ or recommended only for high-risk children.

Secretary Kennedy’s recent changes to the CDC’s childhood immunization schedule are part of a broader, two-pronged strategy to reshape vaccine policy in the US. His allies are simultaneously leading a well-funded, state-level campaign to dismantle the school-entry vaccine mandates that have been in place for decades.

At least nine states have introduced bills to eliminate or weaken school vaccine mandates, with Idaho and Iowa moving toward removing them entirely. While Kennedy has not said outright that the federal government is modeling plans after those states’ efforts, its backers suggest his involvement.

The effort to overturn state vaccine mandates is being led by the Medical Freedom Act Coalition, an umbrella group of at least 15 nonprofit organizations. This coalition includes Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit Kennedy co-founded but says he is no longer involved in, and groups created to support his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ (MAHA) initiative.

An HHS spokesperson acknowledged but declined to answer the Daily Mail’s questions about potential efforts to change vaccine requirements nationwide. 

While many of the anti-vaccine activists allied with RFK Jr have been fighting vaccine mandates for years, the current legislative blitz gained significant momentum in 2025 and early 2026.

Iowa’s HF 2171, which would eliminate all school vaccine requirements, has advanced through committee and awaits a House vote. New Hampshire is advancing two measures: HB 1811, amended to retain only the polio mandate, and HB 1719, targeting hepatitis B specifically, both headed for full House votes.

Florida, whose Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state would rescind all vaccine mandates, though without necessary legislative approval, has advanced Senate Bill 1756 to expand exemptions for personal reasons while simultaneously pursuing regulatory changes to drop requirements for hepatitis B and chickenpox.

Arizona’s broad anti-mandate bill awaits action but faces a likely veto by the Democratic governor, while West Virginia has introduced multiple bills to create religious exemptions and prohibit mandates.

These 2026 efforts build upon Idaho’s 2025 Medical Freedom Act, which broadly prohibits discrimination based on vaccination status but created legal contradictions with existing school mandates.

Activists are using the Trump Administration’s vaccine leniency as evidence to argue that these shots are not essential for all children, thereby justifying the elimination of school requirements.

This strategy creates a cascade effect: the federal government signals that a vaccine is less critical, which empowers state legislators to propose ending school mandates, which in turn could lead to lower immunization rates and higher risk of preventable disease outbreaks.

The impact of anti-vaccine attitudes is already on display in South Carolina, where an ongoing measles outbreak has infected nearly 1,000 people, most of them children, with at least 19 requiring hospitalization for severe complications including pneumonia and brain inflammation.

The vast majority of patients, 893, have not received both doses of their measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which experts say is 97 percent effective at preventing illness and overwhelmingly safe.   

In schools at the epicenter of the outbreak across the state, vaccination rates among students fell below 80 percent, well below the CDC’S 95 percent threshold needed to maintain herd immunity and reduce spread of the highly infectious disease.

Despite legislative attacks on vaccine requirements, they remain widely popular. Nine in 10 parents say it is important for children to be vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella as well as polio, according to polling from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

And that attitude spans party lines. While 96 percent and 95 percent of Democrat parents believe children should get the MMR and polio vaccines, respectively, a substantial 88 percent of Republicans support the MMR vaccine and 86 percent support the polio vaccine.

Even MAGA parents are in favor. Eighty-five percent of them reported supporting children getting the MMR shots, while 82 percent endorsed the polio vaccine.