The Pulitzer Center's support for this reporting was made possible in part through the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
A six-month Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigation found that school leaders have allowed thousands of children into schools without all the required vaccines, even though they had no special exemptions that let them forgo the shots on religious or philosophical grounds—a violation of state vaccine laws.
With dangerous childhood diseases surging across the United States, the practice among some school leaders is jeopardizing the health of thousands of children, especially those with compromised immune systems.
At the same time, the vaccination rates in Pennsylvania schools—especially for measles—are dropping to levels not seen in years. Across the state, rates in one in every four elementary schools—public and private—have fallen below herd immunity for measles, the critical threshold needed to stem the spread of the disease.
This comes amid the nation’s largest surge of measles in decades, with hundreds of people—mostly unvaccinated children—getting sick in outbreaks sweeping the country.
