Iowa GOP lawmakers move to end school vaccine requirements

DES MOINES — No immunizations would be required for students to attend Iowa schools under legislation advancing in the Iowa House, despite sharp warnings from public health officials and medical groups.

A three-member Iowa House subcommittee voted along party lines to advance legislation Wednesday that would eliminate long-standing requirements that students be vaccinated to attend elementary and secondary schools. Republican Reps. Helena Hayes of New Sharon and Brooke Boden of Indianola signed on, moving House File 2171 forward to the full House Education Committee for further conversation. The bill was scheduled to be considered later Wednesday by the full committee.

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Democratic Rep. Heather Matson of Ankeny opposed the measure, calling it dangerous and inconsistent with decades of public health practice.

The bill would strike Iowa Code provisions requiring children enrolled in K-12 schools to receive a series of vaccinations, while leaving vaccination requirements for child care facilities intact. Rep. Zach Dieken, R-Granville, who introduced the bill, told The Des Moines Register that was an unintended oversight.

Iowa has required school vaccinations since 1977, a policy public health officials credit with sharply reducing outbreaks of measles, mumps and other infectious diseases.

During Wednesday’s hearing, supporters framed the bill as a matter of parental rights and educational access. Boden said current law effectively coerces parents into vaccinating their children or claiming religious or medical exemptions in order to attend school.

“I do intend to move the bill forward,” Boden said. “I think it deserves more than just three of us to weigh in on it.”

Opponents, including representatives of the Iowa Medical Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, hospitals, county governments and public health organizations, warned that removing school requirements would lower vaccination rates and increase the risk of outbreaks, hospitalizations and school disruptions.

Among those testifying against the bill was Jane Colacecchi, former director of the Iowa Department of Public Health and a former member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 vaccine Response Task Force. Colacecchi said eliminating school immunization requirements would place Iowa children at “increased and unnecessary risk of serious, preventable disease,” emphasizing that schools are environments where infections spread quickly and that vaccination is the most reliable protection against outbreaks. She warned that weakened requirements would especially endanger children who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and rely on herd immunity for protection.

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“The science is clear and settled,” Colacecchi said, noting that childhood immunizations are among the most thoroughly studied medical interventions and that there is no credible evidence linking vaccines to autism or other developmental disorders.

“They've been used for decades with hundreds of millions of doses administered worldwide,” she said. “The vaccine evidence shows that they are safe. They're highly effective. … And the question has been studied repeatedly, exhaustively and inclusively, both the medical and public health communities are unified on this point.”

Matson echoed those concerns during the hearing, noting that Iowa had some of the highest per capita rates of measles and mumps before vaccination requirements were adopted. “Public health matters,” she said. “This bill is dangerous for our kids.”

Supporters, opponents clash over parental choice and public health

Supporters of the bill argued it would restore parental authority and remove schools from what they described as an inappropriate enforcement role in medical decisions.

Oliver Bardwell of Iowans for Freedom told lawmakers the proposal is “simple and principled,” saying it would end “the practice of conditioning access to education on compliance with medical procedures.” Bardwell stressed the bill would not ban vaccines or interfere with medical care.

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“It simply says that families, not government agencies, should make health care decisions for their children without being threatened with school exclusion,” he said, adding that using schools to enforce vaccination requirements has eroded trust and created resistance rather than confidence.

Medical groups countered that removing school vaccination requirements would have ripple effects across Iowa’s already strained health care system.

Seth Brown, speaking on behalf of the Iowa Medical Society and the Iowa chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the organizations oppose the bill because of its potential impact on patient care statewide. Vaccinations, he said, require “very little time on the front end,” while the diseases they prevent can lead to lengthy hospitalizations.

“We fear that hindering some of these preventative disease protections will result in increased emergency room admissions, further straining the workforce and occupying a finite number of beds,” Brown said.

Brei Johnson of Informed Choice Iowa framed the issue as one of ethics and individualized care, arguing that parents — not schools or the state — are the legally recognized medical decision-makers for their children. Tying education to vaccine compliance, Johnson said, is unethical and counterproductive.

Lina Tucker Reinders, executive director of the Iowa Public Health Association, said the proposal would endanger Iowans and set a dangerous precedent nationally. School vaccine requirements, she said, often prompt families to engage with health care providers and help ensure that classrooms — where viruses spread quickly — remain safe.

The debate in Iowa comes amid a broader national push in some states to revisit or weaken school vaccination requirements. According to a recent analysis by KFF, while all states require certain vaccines for school attendance, recent legislative efforts have focused on expanding exemptions or limiting enforcement, with public health experts warning that even modest declines in vaccination coverage can lead to outbreaks of highly contagious diseases.

The bill now heads to the full House Education Committee, where it is expected to draw further debate.

Federal/national context

Although the federal government recommends vaccines for public uptake, vaccination requirements for schools and child care are set by states and local governments.

In January, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced they no longer recommended six routine vaccinations for all children and adolescents. No scientific evidence was used to explain the change. The decision was made without input from the scientific committee that suggests and informs changes to the vaccination schedules.

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposed the change. The organization, which releases its own annual recommended vaccination schedule for children, did not reflect the federal changes in its 2026 recommendations.

Policy analysts predicted disconnect between the sets of guidelines would lead to greater differences in vaccination recommendations and outcomes across states.

Florida’s surgeon general announced in September that the state would remove all school vaccine requirements. While that change has yet to be made, a recent bill passed by a state senate subcommittee would pave the way for more exemptions.

Historic Iowa requirements

Iowa currently requires vaccinations against the following diseases to enroll children in an elementary or secondary school:

The Tdap, polio and meningococcal vaccine series all require children receive at least one dose from the series when they are 4 years old or older.

Iowa law allows children to be exempt from vaccination requirements for medical or religious reasons.

These changes come during a record-breaking outbreak of measles in South Carolina, up to 876 identified cases as of Tuesday. It’s the largest outbreak since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S.

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Measles outbreaks

Nathan Boonstra, a pediatrician speaking as a representative of the Iowa chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said he was surprised to see the legislation introduced in the midst of ongoing measles outbreaks.

“It's very surprising to me that, given the challenges that we're facing against infectious disease, that our lawmakers would want to increase the risk of these diseases for our school children,” Boonstra said. “Why this is being introduced at this point is extremely perplexing.”

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Boonstra said school vaccination requirements protect not only schoolchildren themselves, but immunocompromised people and those who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons in the community.

“Every child in school has the right to learn in the safest environment possible, and that means making sure that we reduce the chance of outbreaks of dangerous diseases. That is why school vaccine requirements are so important. Anything that is going to weaken our strong vaccination rates in Iowa is going to increase the risk of outbreaks.”

Boonstra said the requirement to give students in grades seven through 12 the meningococcal vaccine was signed into Iowa law by Republican Gov. Terry Branstad.

“One of the things I think is important for people to realize is vaccine requirements for schools generally have historically had great bipartisan support,” Boonstra said. “It's frustrating that is not seeming to be the case.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com