Ah, I see what you were saying. No, that's right, it doesn't. The change to law re. what the school nurse can do is a separate thing. Children who have exemptions on file can no longer be excluded (kept home) during an outbreak unless (until) they are sick.

In Idaho, schools haven't been allowed to require vaccinations without exemptions since at least the 1990s. Schools must accept medical, religious or personal belief exemptions. The main story goes into that, and some of the additional changes that seem to have made exemptions more common.

Thank you so much for sharing and the kind words.

This isn't to downplay the real evidence that Idaho is more vaccine-averse than other places. We have a track record of low vaccine uptake for adults, flu shots, COVID immunizations, etc. But it's important to know the nuances of the data, and what it does -- and doesn't -- tell us.

When Idaho was mulling (back in 2017) whether to let parents simply write a note to get an exemption, the school nurse association warned this could happen: that parents whose kids were immunized may opt for an exemption "just because it is more convenient." legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/u...

Why the discrepancy? Can't say for sure. But those legal changes made it easier for some busy parents to claim an exemption when they register their kindergartner, than to provide their kid's vaccination records. And schools are now legally required to tell us we have that option.

And here's what the kindergarten vaccination rates look like, based on the school records (or exemptions) on file for Idaho kids.

Because of Idaho's legal changes over the past 5-10 years, more parents are filing vaccine exemptions when they register their kindergartner for school. But this is key: exempt ≠ vaccinated. Here's the childhood vax rate, according to surveys of Idaho parents (then validated by medical providers):