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School Vaccination: Past, Present, Future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2025

Kim Tolley  and
Dorit Rubinstein Reiss
Kim Tolley
Affiliation:
Notre Dame de Namur University, CA, USA
Dorit Rubinstein Reiss*
Affiliation:
University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, USA
*
Corresponding author: Dorit Rubinstein Reiss; Email: reissd@uclawsf.edu
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Abstract

The arrival of COVID-19 in the US during the spring of 2020 cast a spotlight on the issue of vaccinations and their efficacy. School closures and school vaccination policies were among the most contentious arenas of debate as parents, teachers, and policymakers wrestled with how best to respond to the pandemic. Disease in school is not a new topic—our nation has previously faced outbreaks of influenza, polio, measles, and more. A look at the past can teach us much about how to understand the passionate, and sometimes partisan, views about school vaccination. Outside of schools, the anti-vax movement has enjoyed greater visibility and support even as public health officials emphasize the importance of herd immunity and broad vaccinations. The confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary in February of this year makes it likely that the issues of school vaccination and immunization policy will continue to be vigorously debated.

Information

Type
Policy Dialogue
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 65 , Issue 3 , August 2025 , pp. 424 - 434
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of History of Education Society.

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References

Additional Readings

Klein, Rebecca and Preston, Caroline. “How the Science of vaccination is Taught (or not) in US Schools,” The Hechinger Report, May 23 , 2020, https://hechingerreport.org/how-the-science-of-vaccination-is-taught-or-not-in-us-schools/.Google Scholar
Prothero, Arianna. “Many Schools Don’t Teach About the Science of Vaccines. Here’s Why They Should, Education Week, July 2 , 2021, https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/many-schools-dont-teach-about-the-science-of-vaccines-heres-why-they-should/2021/07.Google Scholar
Reiss, Dorit Rubinstein. “Vaccines, School Mandates, and California’s Right to Education,” UCLA L. Rev. Disc. 98 (2015), 114–15.Google Scholar
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Reiss, Dorit Rubinstein. “Anti-Vaccine Misinformation and the Law: Challenges and Pitfalls,” Indiana Health Review 18, no. 85 (2021), 85–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reiss, Dorit R., “Litigating Alternative Facts: School Vaccine Mandates in the Courts,” U. PA. Journal of Constitutional Law 21, no. 1 (2018), 207–66.Google Scholar
Tolley, Kim, “Textbook Health: What Children Learned about Vaccination in the Progressive Era,” paper presented at the History of Education Society Annual Meeting Virtual Conference, 2020. Available at ResearchGate. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23674.57282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolley, Kim. Vaccine Wars: The Two-Hundred-Year Fight for School Vaccinations (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolley, Kim, “School Vaccination Wars: The Rise of Anti-Science in the American Anti-Vaccination Societies, 1879–1929,” History of Education Quarterly, 59, no. 2 (2019), 161–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar