Hunter
02/05/26
Legislation advancing in the Republican-led Iowa House would end immunization requirements for students to attend school.
The Gazette reports The House Education Committee advanced the bill late Wednesday night, on a 14-9 vote, with two Republicans joining Democrats in voting against the bill. With committee passage of the bill, it’s now eligible for debate and a vote on the House floor as early as next week.
A subcommittee had advanced the bill 2-1 along party lines earlier in the day.
The bill would strike Iowa Code provisions requiring children in K-12 schools to receive a series of vaccinations, but leave the requirement for child care facilities intact. Representative Zach Dieken introduced the bill, and told the Des Moines Register that the child care requirement continuing was an unintended oversight.
Iowa has required school vaccinations since 1977 and is widely regarded as the reason that outbreaks of infectious diseases like measles and mumps have drastically reduced. Representatives from the Iowa Medical Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, hospitals, county governments and public health organizations, strongly opposed the measure, warning that removing school requirements would put children at an unnecessary risk of serious, preventable disease.