Cohen: Are richer parents driving vaccine denial?
Charter schools and higher-income schools show higher rates of exemptions for childhood vaccines
Following the recent measles outbreak in California, MPRC faculty associate Philip Cohen wondered if it was possible to identify any patterns in which families decide not to vaccinate their children. Cohen looked at vaccine exemption rates for kindergarteners at almost 7,000 schools in California and compared with free-lunch eligibility rates. Preliminary results show that private and charter schools in California have higher percentages of unvaccinated children than public schools. Kindergarteners in charter schools are about five times more likely than those in public schools to forego vaccinations. Vaccine exemption levels also seem to be tied to income level: children at richer schools are also less likely to be vaccinated.