NC Measles Vaccination Data Dashboard

North Carolina collects aggregated vaccination data from schools each year for kindergarten students, as required by state law. These reports are shown in the NC Kindergarten Immunization Data Dashboard. We use the following information from these reports:

• The total number of students enrolled in kindergarten each year
• The total number of kindergarteners who are up to date on all required vaccines

Additional vaccination estimates come from:

• The National Immunization Survey (NIS). NIS coverage estimates are available for:
  • Infant/toddler age group (13-35 months)
  • Middle and high school age group (13-17 years)
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which provides state-level data reported by state immunization programs through the CDC SchoolVaxView dashboard.

County-Level Estimates Shown on the Dashboard

• Overall county vaccination coverage: The percent of K-5 students in the county who are estimated to be up to date on the MMR vaccine. This is calculated by dividing the estimated total number of K-5 students up to date on the MMR vaccine by the total number of K-5 students in the county.
• Proportion of students at under-vaccinated schools: The percent of students enrolled in elementary schools where less than 95% of students are up to date on the MMR vaccine. This is calculated by dividing the estimated number of students at K-5 schools with less than 95% vaccination coverage by the estimated total number of K-5 students in the county.

School and Grade-Level Estimates

The dashboard shows estimates of MMR vaccination coverage at the school- and grade-levels.

• Overall school coverage: The percent of K-5 students in a school who are up to date on the MMR vaccine. This is calculated by dividing the estimated total number of K-5 students in the school who are up to date on the MMR vaccine by the total number of K-5 students in the school.
• Grade-level coverage: The percent of students in each grade who are up to date on the MMR vaccine. This is calculated by dividing the estimated total number of students in the grade who are up to date on the MMR vaccine by the total number of students in the grade.

For privacy, estimates are not shown for grades where enrollment data suggest there are fewer than 10 students. In this case, the data is marked as "suppressed for privacy."

When schools report vaccination coverage, those numbers are shown on the dashboard. But not every school reports each year, and the most recent kindergarten data (2025-26) is not yet available. In those cases, the dashboard uses estimates which are based on:

• State-level exemption rate (the fraction of children who will be exempt for medical or other reasons), which changes year-to-year,
• Each county's difference from that state-level average exemption rate,
• Each school's difference from its county average exemption rate, and
• Statewide proportion of non-exempt children vaccinated every year

Using these values, we can then calculate the non-exempt fraction who were vaccinated by the time they started kindergarten for each grade, school and county.

1. Only schools that have submitted some annual immunization reports are included.
2. Data for schools with fewer than 10 students in every grade are not shown to protect privacy (though these do contribute to estimating county-level trends).
3. Vaccination status is captured at day 30 of kindergarten (unless the deadline is extended by an executive order). Vaccinations given later in the year are not included for kindergarten estimates. This data is not available typically until after the school year is complete.
4. Schools self-report their data. The state reviews it for errors and completeness and contacts schools to confirm or resubmit if needed. Still, some data errors or reporting biases may remain.
5. Coverage values do not account for students who move in or out of a school after kindergarten entry or who get vaccinated after day 30 of kindergarten enrollment.
6. Not all years have measles-specific (MMR) data. Because of this, coverage is based on the number of students up to date on all required vaccines. These coverage estimates are equal to or lower than MMR-specific coverage estimates.
7. State-level coverage based on National Immunization Survey (NIS) data only covers a small sample of children in the state.
8. CDC estimates of kindergarten coverage are based on state reports and may have the same limitations as school-level data.