Washington school vaccine requirements and your child’s record
The short answer for Washington
- Required for school
- Child care and school: chickenpox, diphtheria, rubella, Hib (to age 5), hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pneumococcal (to age 5), polio, tetanus, pertussis. Source · Official page
- If your child is behind on shots
- Children completing their vaccines may attend in conditional status; 30 calendar days to turn in documentation once the next dose is due. Source
- Get the record
- Parents can get a child's record by sending a signed Authorization to Release form. Source · Official page
Checked 11 Nov 2026 against the Washington State Department of Health pages. The federal schedule is in court: see what cdc.gov shows today and what changed.
Washington lets parents ask for a child’s record by form or through MyIR, and it lists the diseases child care and school require.
Run by Washington State Department of Health. Registry: Immunization Information System (IIS); families can sign up for MyIR. All facts on this page were checked on or after 11 Nov 2026.
From the record to the school
Get your child’s record
- How to ask Parents and adults can sign up for MyIR for access to family records[S1]
- What you get The Certificate of Immunization Status (CIS) that schools and child care ask for can be printed from the state Immunization Information System (IIS) or completed by hand; one printed from the IIS is medically verified and needs no additional parent or health care provider verification signature[S2]
- Good to know The system gives immunization information only to you or your child's doctor, nurse or clinic[S1]
- Good to know A clinic using the system can print a record for child care, school or camp[S1]
- Good to know Families without a Lifetime Immunization Record Card can call the Family Health Hotline to request one[S1]
Sources: S1. doh.wa.gov/parents, S2. doh.wa.gov/immunization
School and child care rules
- Required vaccines Child care requirements are charted by the child's age (the number of doses required by each age), and school requirements are charted by grade; for example, a student entering kindergarten needs two doses of MMR vaccine[S1]
- Required vaccines The child care chart for parents gives the doses required at each age checkpoint (By 3 months, 5 months, 7 months, 16 months and 19 months, then a last row that starts By 7 years) for hepatitis B, DTaP, Hib, polio, PCV, MMR and varicella; children in preschool through 12th grade must meet the requirements for their grade in school instead[S2]
- Deadline On or before the first day of school or child care attendance, parents or guardians must provide proof of full immunization, a certificate of exemption, or the start of and compliance with a schedule of immunization[S1]
- Good to know Children of active-duty military parents or guardians must turn in documentation of immunization status on or before the first day of attendance, and have 30 days from enrollment to get any additional doses the state requires[S1]
- Good to know Immunization records turned in to a school or child care on or after 1 August 2020 must be medically verified, so a hand-completed CIS needs a signature from a health care provider (or a school nurse, administrator or child care health consultant who has compared it with the medical record); child care needs an updated medically verified CIS every year[S1]
- Good to know The Certificate of Immunization Status (CIS) form is an official document that includes the State Seal, and under WAC 434-04-020 it should not be reproduced in a non-Department of Health electronic record system[S1]
- Good to know Students who are homeless (McKinney-Vento Act) or in foster care must be allowed to enroll, attend classes and participate fully, and cannot be excluded for being out of compliance with the immunization requirements[S1]
Sources: S1. doh.wa.gov/immunization, S2. doh.wa.gov/348-425-ChildcareImmReqforParents
Exemptions
- Washington allows exemptions for personal/philosophical, religious or medical reasons; measles, mumps and rubella cannot be exempted for personal/philosophical reasons
Sources: doh.wa.gov
Other states: Texas, California, Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin. All states.