Schools
Curious About Mercer Island SD Vaccination Rates? Here's The Data
Washington is experiencing the worse measles outbreak since the 1990s. See how immunization rates for your school district
MERCER ISLAND, WA - Washington is experiencing the largest outbreak of measles since the mid 1990s with 36 confirmed cases as of Tuesday, including one case in King County. But state data show that overall immunization rates in local school districts are often below 95 percent, which is considered a high vaccination rate.
State law requires school districts to report immunization rates once per year. The last census was taken in April 2018 for the 2017-18 school year. The data show that districts like Seattle, Northshore, and Lake Washington have total immunization rates below 90 percent.
For measles, health officials believe that a given population - like a school - should have an immunization rate of between 92 and 95 percent to achieve "herd immunity." Herd immunity helps protect people who can't get vaccines from disease.
Find out what's happening in Mercer Islandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
In Washington, parents can exempt their children from vaccinations for medical, personal, or religious reasons. In local districts, personal exemptions are more often used to excuse students from vaccinations.
In the two tables below, you can see overall vaccination rates per school district for just kindergarten students (table 1) and for an entire district (table 2). This data is from the 2017-2018 school year.
Find out what's happening in Mercer Islandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Kindergarten only (2017-18)
| School District | Enrollment | Vaccination Rate | Medical Exemption | Personal Exemption | Religious Exemption |
| Bellevue | 2,025 | 85.8% | 1% | 2.4% | 0% |
| Issaquah | 1,531 | 94.4% | 0.7% | 3.7% | 0.1% |
| Lake Washington | 2,535 | 79.9% | 0.9% | 2% | 0.1% |
| Mercer Island | 351 | 85.8% | 2% | 2.3% | 0.3% |
| Northshore | 1,950 | 86.3% | 0.9% | 3.4% | 0% |
| Renton | 1,349 | 90.3% | 1% | 3% | 0.6% |
| Seattle | 5,687 | 84.1% | 0.1% | 2.2% | 0.1% |
| Shoreline | 849 | 89.3% | 0.7% | 4.9% | 0% |
All grades, K-12 (2017-18)
| School District | Enrollment | Vaccination Rate | Medical Exemption | Personal Exemption | Religious Exemption |
| Bellevue | 24,647 | 89.6% | 3.3% | 2.4% | 0.2% |
| Issaquah | 21,001 | 95.5% | 0.8% | 2.8% | 0.1% |
| Lake Washington | 33,843 | 88.5% | 1.3% | 3.7% | 0.2% |
| Mercer Island | 5,205 | 92.7% | 1% | 2.2% | 0.1% |
| Northshore | 23,399 | 85.1% | 0.8% | 3.8% | 0.1% |
| Renton | 16,548 | 92.9% | 0.7% | 2.5% | 0.4% |
| Seattle | 68,426 | 84.1% | 0.3% | 1.2% | 0.1% |
| Shoreline | 11,691 | 90.6% | 0.8% | 5.9% | 0.1% |
There are about 500 local schools from the districts in tables 1 and 2 with immunization rates of 95 percent or better, according to state data. There are about 80 schools with immunization rates below 80 percent.
Of the 36 people sickened in the 2019 measles outbreak, just four had received a measles vaccination. Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a statewide state of emergency due to how contagious measles is - one infected person can infect a dozen or more people, according to health officials.
Here are the schools in Puget Sound (the cities included in the school districts in tables 1 and 2) with the highest vaccination rates.
100 percent vaccine rate
- THE SAMMAMISH MONTESSORI SCHOOL
- PRIVETT ACADEMY
- TLC MONTESSORI
- TILDEN SCHOOL
- BEL-RED BILINGUAL ACADEMY
- LIVING MONTESSORI ACADEMY
- NORTHWEST LIBERTY SCHOOL
- FIRCREST HIGH SCHOOL
- CEDAR CREST BELLEWOOD
- PACIFIC LEARNING ACADEMY
- SPRING ACADEMY
- FOREST RIDGE SCHOOL OF SACRED HEART
- EASTSIDE ACADEMY OVERLAKE CAMPUS
- NORTHERN LIGHTS MONTESSORI WILLOWS CAMPUS
- BIG BRAINS PREPARATORY
- Holy Family Bi-Lingual
- ALFAJER SCHOOL
- LES LILAS
- SYNERGY LEARNING ACADEMY
- ST. MATTHEW SCHOOL
- MATHEIA SCHOOL
- SNOQUALMIE SPRINGS SCHOOL
- BRIGHTMONT ACADEMY--SEATTLE CAMPUS
- SEATTLE LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL
- CASCADIA MONTESSORI SCHOOL
- BRIGHTMONT ACADEMY--REDMOND CAMPUS
- ALCUIN SCHOOL
- AMERICA'S CHILD MONTESSORI
- NORTHWEST SCHOOL FOR HEARING IMPAIRED
- DARTMOOR SCHOOL
- SEATTLE URBAN ACADEMY
- NEWPORT CHILDREN'S SCHOOL
97 - 99.9 percent
- LAKESIDE SCHOOL
- EPIPHANY SCHOOL
- CHRIST THE KING SCHOOL
- ST. BERNADETTE SCHOOL
- O'DEA HIGH SCHOOL
- MORNINGSIDE ACADEMY
- VALLEY SCHOOL
- SOUTHERN HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY
- OPEN WINDOW SCHOOL
- SEATTLE JEWISH COMMUNITY SCHOOL
- SEATTLE ACADEMY OF ARTS/SCIENCES
- Discovery Elementary
- ST. GEORGE SCHOOL
- ST. THERESE SCHOOL
- PERKINS SCHOOL
- OVERLAKE SCHOOL
- EASTSIDE CATHOLIC SCHOOL
- STEPHEN DECATUR ELEMENTARY
- HILLTOP ELEMENTARY
- ST. LOUISE SCHOOL
- ST. MARK SCHOOL
- UNIVERSITY PREPARATORY
- Pine Lake Middle School
- OUR LADY OF FATIMA SCHOOL
- Beaver Lake Middle School
- ST. MONICA SCHOOL
- LAKERIDGE ELEMENTARY
- ST. ANTHONY SCHOOL
- NORTHLAKE PRESCHOOL/ NORTHLAKE ACADEMY
- ST. JOSEPH SCHOOL
- Issaquah Valley Elementary
- Sunny Hills Elementary
- Holy Names Academy
- CHOICE ACADEMY
- EASTSIDE PREPARATORY SCHOOL
95 - 96.9 percent
- BRYN MAWR ELEMENTARY
- CASCADE MIDDLE SCHOOL
- HAMLIN ROBINSON SCHOOL
- VILLA ACADEMY
- THE BUSH SCHOOL
- Skyline High School
- Endeavour Elementary
- Cascade Ridge Elementary
- CONCORDIA LUTHERAN SCHOOL
- MERCER ISLAND HIGH SCHOOL
- SUMMIT PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL OLYMPUS
- EVERGREEN HIGH SCHOOL
- Briarwood Elementary
- ALBERT EINSTEIN ELEMENTARY
- TALBOT HILL ELEMENTARY
- ST. ANNE SCHOOL
- Grand Ridge Elementary
- EXPLORER COMMUNITY SCHOOL
- FAIRVIEW CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
- TESLA STEM HIGH SCHOOL
- SAMANTHA SMITH ELEMENTARY
- CHESTNUT HILL ACADEMY SOUTH CAMPUS
- Issaquah High School
- BELLEVUE MONTESSORI SCHOOL
- Cougar Ridge Elementary
- Northwood Middle
- Carriage Crest Elementary
- Challenger Elementary
- Liberty High School
- ASSUMPTION ST. BRIDGET
- LOYAL HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
- Issaquah Middle School
- MCKNIGHT MIDDLE SCHOOL
- SUMMIT PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL SIERRA
- Spiritridge Elementary
- NORTHWOOD ELEMENTARY
- Pacific Cascade Middle Sch
- ST. JOHN SCHOOL
- ELIZABETH BLACKWELL ELEMENT
- SYRE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
- Creekside Elementary
- Seattle Country Day School
Photo via Getty Images
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