Every state in the nation has a law on the books that mandates children be vaccinated to enter school. With a new school year around the corner and differing guidance from the federal and state governments, there’s a lot for parents to keep track of. What is Wisconsin’s vaccine mandate? And what do the numbers say about how many members of the public are vaccinated?

In place for decades, Wisconsin statutes establish an immunization program mandating that any student wanting to enter the public school system must have required vaccines. If a student doesn’t meet the requirements, parents or guardians may be fined up to $25 per day their child is noncompliant.

But no one in Wisconsin has been fined under that statute since at least 2018, which is as far back as court data tracks charges. However, children can instead get a waiver and be exempt from vaccination requirements if there is a medical or religious reason, or for reasons of personal conviction.

Personal conviction simply means that if a parent personally believes their child should be exempt from a vaccine.

Wisconsin is just one of 19 states that allow for personal conviction waivers, and their popularity has been steadily rising over the past couple of decades. At the same time, the number of students up to date on required vaccines has gone down.

For public health advocates, the numbers are concerning.

But vaccination rates and public health are more nuanced than numbers alone.

For starters, despite personal conviction waivers going up, the vast majority of students in Wisconsin get the required vaccines, hitting 86.4% in the 2024-25 school year. Still, fewer students are meeting requirements than they used to.

One reason is because there are more required shots than there were when the law was first put in place, from three required vaccines in 1975 to seven required vaccines a half-century later. Any time there has been a change in requirements, compliance goes down.

These numbers also track all required vaccines – both who is waiving some vaccines and who is waiving them all.

In the 2024-25 school year, only 1.3% of students had waivers exempting them from all vaccines, a figure that’s lower than the previous year

Ultimately, the state’s job to control public health has to respect individual’s decisions, and a parent can only control what’s best for their own child.

So how can parents make the best choice when there’s fewer children being vaccinated to protect the public?

According to Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the best answer is talking with the child’s doctor, with the manager of the state’s immunization program saying, “Public health and health care providers across the state are here to help families break down these barriers to keep families safe from vaccine preventable diseases.”