Oregon schools face higher measles risk as vaccine rates hit lows
More than a third of Oregon schools now face high measles risk, and Lane County parents are being urged to check school-level vaccination rates, not just county averages.
More than one-third of Oregon schools with 10 or more students in grades K-12 now have measles-mumps-rubella vaccination rates below 93%, putting them at high risk for a measles outbreak, state health officials said. For Lane County families heading into the next school year, the warning is clear: protection can vary sharply from one campus to another, even within the same district.
Oregon Health Authority says parents and guardians can look up school-by-school vaccination and exemption rates on its School Immunization Data dashboard. That matters in Lane County, where countywide numbers can hide pockets of vulnerability at a single elementary school, middle school or high school. Under Senate Bill 895, schools and child care facilities with 10 or more children in the reports must share immunization and exemption rates, along with county rates, twice a year.
The statewide numbers show how quickly Oregon has slipped. For the 2025-2026 school year, the kindergarten nonmedical exemption rate rose to 10.9%, up from 6.9% in 2021-2022. The share of kindergarteners up to date on required vaccines fell to 85.6%, down from 88.4% four years earlier. The measles second dose now has the highest exemption rate among kindergarten vaccines at 9.4%, up from 4.9% a decade ago.
That decline comes as measles is spreading again in Oregon. As of April 23, the state had 22 reported measles cases, 21 in people who were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status, along with one hospitalization. In February, OHA said five confirmed cases identified since Jan. 1 likely represented only part of statewide infections. The agency also warned that measles is a highly contagious airborne disease and that about one-third of reported cases have complications.
Public health officials say the stakes are especially high for babies and immunocompromised people, including the roughly 38,000 Oregon children who are not yet old enough to receive the vaccine. As of April 8, 95% of Oregon residents age 18 and under had received at least one measles dose and 93% were up to date, but officials say pockets of low coverage can still fuel outbreaks.
Lane County Public Health has been telling residents that measles cases were already appearing in Oregon in 2026 and urging adults born after 1957 who were vaccinated before 1968, or anyone without vaccine records, to get MMR guidance. The same public health message applies to parents now: check the school, not just the district, before exposure notices and exclusion rules put families on the spot.
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