California public schools lost more than $2.2 million in state funding over two years because students lacked required vaccinations, and hundreds more schools now face audits that could cost them even more.
According to EdSource, the California State Controller’s Office found that schools in 72 districts lost average daily attendance (ADA) funding after state audits revealed that more than 10% of their kindergartners or seventh graders were not fully vaccinated in 2023 and 2024. Now, the state is auditing 428 more public schools for the same reason. An additional 80 schools failed to report vaccination data to the state at all.
Scott Roark, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education, said districts that stay out of compliance will keep facing consequences. “If an LEA (local education agency) continues to remain out of compliance, they will continue to receive audit findings and face the associated ADA and funding loss,” Roark said. “In addition, any audit finding requires the LEA to develop a corrective action plan describing how they will remedy the issue and prevent it from recurring in future years.”
The funding losses stem from a state law requiring students to be immunized against 10 serious communicable diseases — including measles, polio, pertussis, and chicken pox — before attending public or private school. Proof of vaccination is required when students enter kindergarten, seventh grade, transitional kindergarten, child care, or when transferring from out of state.
Small rural schools topped the audit list. Big Creek Elementary in rural Fresno County had the worst numbers: all five of its audited students — two kindergartners and three seventh graders — lacked required vaccinations. In southern Humboldt County, Redway and Whitethorn elementary schools have appeared on the audit list for three consecutive years.
The problem isn’t limited to small towns. The Oakland Unified School District had 28 of its 53 elementary schools and six of its 11 middle schools flagged for audit. Elmhurst United Middle School led the district’s list, with 63% of its 246 seventh graders needing vaccinations. Despite 14 elementary and four middle schools appearing on the audit list for three straight years, Oakland Unified has not lost any ADA funding. The district has partnered with the Alameda County Public Health Department to offer on-site vaccination clinics, and John Sasaki, the district’s communications director, said more back-to-school clinics are planned for this spring.
Los Angeles Unified, California’s largest school district, had 47 of its 1,200 schools on the 2025 audit list, with 15 appearing all three years. The district said in a statement that it has “maintained an overall district-wide immunization compliance rate of 98%” and that “dedicated health teams are working directly with school communities to identify barriers, connect families to resources, and support compliance.”
In San Mateo County, five of Burlingame Elementary School District’s six schools made the audit list. McKinley Elementary had the highest rate among larger schools — about a third of its 101 kindergartners were unvaccinated. District officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Even as audits continue, overall vaccination rates are slipping. In 2023-24, kindergarten vaccination rates dropped by nearly half a percentage point to 93.7%. Vaccine hesitancy, which grew during the Covid pandemic, is being compounded by recent moves at the federal level. Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rolled back its recommendation that all children be vaccinated against the flu, hepatitis A, meningococcal disease, rotavirus, and RSV — without the traditional scientific review process. The CDC had already scaled back its Covid and hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for infants last year.
Those federal changes don’t affect California’s school requirements, but health experts worry they will still do damage. Catherine Flores Martin, executive director of the California Immunization Coalition, said the mixed messages are causing parents to delay or skip vaccinations. “Even though parents may not be in agreement with this administration, I think it’s still planting doubt, or it’s still planting concern in people’s minds,” she said.
Flores Martin added that California is still in a stronger position than most of the country. “A dip in California can be a couple hundred students, and that’s a lot of students, but compared to the rest of the nation we are ahead,” she said. Still, she warned: “I think there are still parents that are working hard to avoid vaccination. But once children are enrolled in public school or day care, they don’t have that many options in California. They have to vaccinate.”
The concern is not just about funding. Last year, the U.S. recorded 2,255 measles cases — the most since the 1990s. California reported 25 cases in 2025. Just last week, an unvaccinated student in Napa County was diagnosed with measles after being exposed to the disease while visiting South Carolina.
California is one of only four states — along with Connecticut, Maine, and New York — that does not allow personal exemptions from school vaccination requirements. The California Department of Public Health now recommends that parents follow the American Academy of Pediatrics vaccination schedule. Schools on the audit list that are found out of compliance must submit corrective action plans explaining how they will fix the problem and prevent it from happening again.
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