About 26% of kindergartners in Hamilton County are missing vaccination documentation just days after Sycamore Community Schools opened for the 2026-27 school year, complicating efforts by health officials to track who is actually protected against measles and other diseases.
The gap means that when a potential measles case surfaces at an elementary school, county health workers must assume those children are unvaccinated until families produce records, Dr. Steven Feagins, medical director of Hamilton County Public Health, told WLWT on Thursday, Aug. 20.
"That's a big deal for us, because let's say there's a potential elementary school where someone has measles, and so when we go in to contact trace and to understand who needs to be isolated, we have to assume that 26% without documentation have not had vaccinations," Feagins said. "Usually when we do that, the documentation does come forward."
Feagins stressed that the county's numbers look worse than reality because of paperwork problems, not necessarily because children skipped their shots.
National exemption rates hit record high
The local documentation issue lands against a troubling national backdrop. CDC data shows kindergarten vaccine exemptions hit 4.2% for the 2025-26 school year, up from 3.6% the year before and nearly double the 2.2% rate five years ago. That translates to roughly 155,000 children nationwide, and it marks the fourth consecutive record-setting year. The vast majority of those exemptions are for non-medical reasons, according to CBS News.
MMR vaccination coverage fell to 92.4% nationally, below the 95% threshold public health experts say is needed to prevent outbreaks. The U.S. had recorded 2,566 confirmed measles cases as of Aug. 13, the worst year since 1991. Ohio is already in its third measles outbreak of 2026 and has surpassed last year's total case count.
What it means for Sycamore families
Sycamore Community Schools, which serves Montgomery, Blue Ash and Sycamore Township across four elementary buildings, requires immunization records before the first day of school. Classes began Aug. 13-14. Ohio law requires children attending school to be vaccinated against diseases including DTaP, polio, hepatitis B, chickenpox and meningococcal disease.
Dr. Felicia Scaggs Huang, a Cincinnati Children's Hospital doctor, warned that continued declines in vaccination rates will bring more preventable diseases, with consequences ranging from hearing loss to children missing school and parents missing work.
Hamilton County Public Health urged families on Aug. 10 to verify their children's immunization records before school started. Families who still need to submit paperwork to Sycamore schools can contact the district registrar at 513-686-1709 or [email protected].
