Plymouth-Canton parents can now look up vaccination rates at their children's schools after a statewide report found Michigan kindergartners are skipping routine shots at the highest rate in a decade.

Bridge Michigan reported that 7.7% of Michigan kindergartners received immunization waivers in 2025, up from 6.8% in 2024. The CDC put the national kindergarten exemption rate at 4.2% for the 2025-2026 school year. Health officials consider 95% vaccination the threshold for herd immunity.

Bridge Michigan published an interactive lookup tool that lets families search kindergarten vaccination data by school name, including Plymouth-Canton Community Schools buildings. P-CCS-specific waiver figures were not independently confirmed for this report.

State waivers at five-year streak

The statewide school waiver rate rose to 7.1% in 2025, the fifth consecutive annual increase, according to Bridge Michigan. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) grants waivers for religious, medical or philosophical reasons.

Ryan Malosh, head of the MDHHS immunizations division, told WDET on Sept. 3 that the trend may reflect parents delaying shots rather than refusing them. "I think what we're seeing is that that more people are probably wanting to maybe delay some of the vaccines that they're getting … It's not that they're necessarily opposed to vaccination, but they're just maybe concerned about all of the shots at once," Malosh said in that interview.

Michigan requires students to have at least six vaccinations against communicable diseases, including influenza, according to WDET.

Federal order shifts landscape

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August calling to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11, according to Bridge Michigan. Michigan chief medical executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian responded by affirming the state's recommendation to follow the vaccine schedule set by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Michigan reported 16 measles cases this summer as outbreaks spread in other states, according to Bridge Michigan.

Parents can search P-CCS school-level kindergarten vaccination data at bridgemi.com.