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Official Website

of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    The .gov means its official.

    Local, state, and federal government websites often end in .gov. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government websites and email systems use "pennsylvania.gov" or "pa.gov" at the end of the address. Before sharing sensitive or personal information, make sure you're on an official state website. 

    Pennsylvania is one of the states that have all schools self-report immunization data, giving us a much larger data pool. Other states only use an audit sample and submit these sample results to CDC. CDC comprises the final report; however this difference in data reporting is not footnoted in the final report.

    The Pennsylvania School Immunization Law Report (SILR) captures the overall immunization status of all kindergarten and 7th grade students enrolled in all public and private schools throughout the commonwealth.  Attendance at school is defined as attendance at a grade, special classes or kindergarten through 12th grade, including public, private, parochial, vocational, intermediate unit and home education students of cyber and charter schools.

    SILR Data Collection from 2000 to 2006

    The grade levels for this reporting period include:

    • kindergarten
    • grades 1 through 6
    • grades 7 through 9
    • grades 10 through 12
    • special education

    SILR captured the following in all public and private schools:

    • total number of students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade
    • number of students with complete immunizations
    • number of students  with medical exemptions
    • number of students  with religious exemptions
    • number of students  provisionally enrolled
    • number of students denied admission

    SILR Data Collection from 2007 to 2013

    Beginning in 2007, the CDC required antigen-specific data be identified and reported on students in kindergarten and seventh grades ONLY.

    SILR captured the following in all public and private schools for kindergarten and 7th grade:

    • total number of students enrolled
    • number of students with medical exemptions
    • number of students with religious exemptions
    • number of students provisionally enrolled
    • number of students denied admission

    SILR Data Collection from 2013-Present

    As of 2013-2014, philosophical exemptions was added to the SILR which was previously included in the religious exemption numbers.  Based on guidance provided by CDC best practices to monitor vaccination coverage and exemptions, it was recommended to separate philosophical and religious exemptions. Implementation of this best practice facilitates compliance with grant requirements by ensuring that the data provided to CDC is valid, reliable and allow for comparisons between states.

    SILR captures the following in all public and private schools for kindergarten and 7th grade:

    • total number of students enrolled
    • number of students with medical exemptions
    • number of students with religious exemptions
    • number of students with philosophical exemptions
    • number of students provisionally enrolled
    • number of students denied admission

    About This Data Collection

    The percentages will not add up to 100 percent.  A child may be up to date on some of the required antigens but not all so they would be considered provisional.  A child may also have exemptions for some of the vaccines, for example the parents/guardian may not want live vaccines such as MMR and varicella, but have all the others. These two examples provide for an overlap in data.  A child may also have more than one exemption such as medical and religious.

    Home schooled children report to the school district of which they live in, and are required to follow the same requirements as children attending school.

    The proportion surveyed in the SILR is <100 percent, but is shown as 100 percent based on incomplete information about the actual current enrollment.

    Pa Level Immunization Rates by Year

    Pa County Level Immunization Rates by Year