With recent outbreaks of measles in the Chicago area – including diagnoses of measles within the city’s new migrant shelters – NBC 5 Investigates and Telemundo Investiga have examined all immunization data kept by the Illinois State Board of Education, which shows the vaccination rates for each school – public and private – throughout the state.
All schools are required to report these rates each year, for a variety of communicable diseases, including measles, mumps, chicken pox and rubella.
The most recent available state data is for the 2022-2023 school year, before many of Chicago’s new migrant children arrived in local schools. The data is still useful, however, to see how many children were immunized for measles in advance of the arrival of their new migrant classmates.
For example, the De Diego Elementary Community Academy – the public school for many migrant children who currently live in a shelter on Halsted Street in Pilsen – reported a measles vaccination rate of 94.46% for the 2022-2023 school year, with fewer than ten of its 415 students unvaccinated for measles.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sets a target level of 95% for a school to achieve herd immunity, which is the percentage of students that need to be vaccinated in order to avoid wide transmission of a disease.
With De Diego Academy now accommodating many young children who have recently arrived in Chicago, that “herd immunity” rate becomes even more key, in ensuring that the school remains as well-protected as possible from measles spreading to other students.
NBC 5 Investigates and Telemundo Investiga have created a searchable table, showing the 2022-2023 measles vaccination rates for all schools – public and private – throughout Illinois.
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Note that many schools have identical names. For example, there are scores of “Lincoln” schools throughout the state. To find a particular school in your district, use this link to look up your school district number, and then search for that number in the table to find all of its schools and their immunization rates for measles.
