Measles Outbreak: Low Vaccination Rates in Houston Area Private Schools
Covenant Children’s Hospital is pictured from outside the emergency entrance on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, in Lubbock, Texas.
A few small private schools in the Houston area are among the Texas institutions with the lowest measles vaccination rates, according to data compiled by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
After 285 measles cases were reported in the United States in 2024, there were 164 during the first two months of this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority of those cases have been associated with an outbreak in West Texas, with more than 100 in Gaines County between Lubbock and Odessa. Twenty-two of the people infected in West Texas have been hospitalized and an unvaccinated child died in late February, according to the state health department.
The Houston Health Department on Jan. 17 reported the city’s first measles cases since 2018 — two adults living in the same household who had traveled internationally and were not vaccinated. Those cases were not tied to the outbreak in West Texas, and no additional cases in Houston have since been reported by the city health department.
Immunization data from more than 1,600 surveyed public and private schools in Texas shows that 50% or fewer kindergarteners in some private schools in Harris and Montgomery counties were vaccinated for measles during the 2023-24 school year.
Houston-Area Officials Push for Measles Vaccinations Amid West Texas Outbreak
Houston Public Media reached out to three Houston-area schools with some of the lowest measles vaccination rates in the region. None responded to requests for comment.
About 36% of kindergarteners at the Acton Leadership Academy of Magnolia were vaccinated for measles in 2023-24. There are 11 students enrolled in kindergarten at the Montgomery County school, according to data provided to Houston Public Media by the state health department.
With 12 students in kindergarten at Acton Academy Cy-Fair in northwest Houston, 50% were vaccinated for the virus last year.
Acton Leadership Academy of Creekside, located in Spring, also had a 50% measles vaccination rate in its kindergarten class. The state health department did not provide the number of students in the class, citing privacy concerns, but indicated the enrollment was no more than 10.
The low rates indicate that more parents may be seeking vaccination exemptions for their children, said George Rust, director of the Center for Medicine and Public Health at Florida State University.
Measles Vaccination Rates in Houston Area
Across Texas, 92.18% of kindergarteners at the nearly 1,680 surveyed public and private schools were immunized for measles during the 2023-24 school year. That was down from 92.89% the previous year.
According to the 2023-24 data, 92.22% of surveyed private school kindergartners around the Houston area were vaccinated for measles. That was roughly on par with the 92.34% of public school kindergartners in the Houston region that were vaccinated.
How Contagious is Measles, Really?
In Texas, parents may seek vaccination exemptions for their children for two reasons: if a physician states the vaccine could pose a health risk to the student, or if the student’s parents have a religious or personal belief that opposes getting the vaccine.
"That’s always been there, that we would provide waivers for individuals for whom there’s a medical contradiction to the vaccine," Rust said. "There’s actually a fairly small number of people who qualify for that. Obviously, if you get one dose of the vaccine and you have a dramatic reaction that’s very rare.
"Where we’re seeing an increase is in people requesting religious waivers or these personal reasons, personal values waivers," he added.
Those requests, Rust said, seemed to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic because of misinformation surrounding vaccines.
"In that context, we are endangering our neighbor when we make that choice and so the shift in values from community responsibility to this — what I would consider almost an overemphasis on individual autonomy to the detriment of community — can sometimes make it much more likely that we will see an increase in these waivers, decrease in vaccination rates," Rust said.
Low Vaccination Rates in Dallas Area Schools
According to recent state data, schools in the Dallas area also have some of the lowest vaccination rates among kindergartners.
A megachurch pastor in that area this week celebrated that a school affiliated with his church had the lowest vaccination rate for measles in Texas, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth has the lowest rate — with 14.3% of its kindergartners vaccinated for measles.
"I think there are certainly communities all over the country that are vulnerable to an outbreak," Rust said. "What happens next is critical to how that will go and how much spread there will be."
FAQs
Q: What are the current measles vaccination rates in the Houston area?
A: According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, 92.22% of kindergartners in private schools and 92.34% of kindergartners in public schools in the Houston area were vaccinated for measles during the 2023-24 school year.
Q: Why are some parents seeking vaccination exemptions for their children?
A: According to George Rust, director of the Center for Medicine and Public Health at Florida State University, parents may be seeking exemptions due to misinformation surrounding vaccines and an overemphasis on individual autonomy.
Q: What is the current measles outbreak situation in Texas?
A: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 164 measles cases were reported in the United States during the first two months of 2025, with the vast majority associated with an outbreak in West Texas.
Q: What can be done to prevent the spread of measles?
A: According to Rust, increasing vaccination rates and promoting community responsibility can help prevent the spread of measles.
