State Required Immunization Letter
2024/2025 School Year
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Dear families of students attending Colorado kindergarten through 12th grade schools for the 2025-26 school year:
This letter includes important information about Colorado’s school vaccine requirements, as well as other resources. There’s nothing more important than making sure your child or children stay healthy and learning all year long. Getting vaccinated gives children and adolescents the best chance of staying healthy and in school.
Colorado law requires students who attend school to be vaccinated against many of the diseases vaccines can protect against, unless a Certificate of Exemption is filed. For more information, visit
https://cdphe.colorado.gov/immunization-policy-and-board-health-rules. Before a student’s first day of school, families are responsible for providing an up-to-date immunization record, an in-process plan, or a Certificate of Exemption to each school the student attends. An in-process plan is written by your student’s immunizing provider and shows that your student is following the ACIP schedule to catch up on missing dose(s) of one or more school-required vaccines.
Getting vaccinated and following the recommended schedule is important. Think of vaccines as a special training program for the body, teaching it how to fight off harmful germs. The protection from vaccines can last a very long time, which helps to keep your child, your family, and your community safe and healthy.
Vaccines required for school
To attend school, your student must be vaccinated against:
● Hepatitis B (HepB)
● Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP,Tdap)
● Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR)
● Polio (IPV)
● Varicella (chickenpox)
Get kindergarten ready: Colorado law requires children between the ages of 4 and 6 years to receive their final doses of DTaP, IPV, MMR, and varicella before kindergarten entry.
Get sixth-grade ready: Colorado law requires adolescents to receive one dose of Tdap before sixth-grade entry, even if the student is 10 years old.
Number of doses and spacing of vaccines:
Colorado follows recommendations set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. This committee is a group of medical and public health experts who study vaccines and recommend them for the public. View recommended vaccine schedules for children birth through 6 years of age at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-schedules/child-easyread.html and children/adolescents 7-18 years of age at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/imz-schedules/adolescent-easyread.html.
Vaccines that are not required for school but are recommended include:
COVID-19, hepatitis A (HepA), human papillomavirus (HPV), influenza (flu), and meningococcal disease (MenACWY and MenB). The timing and spacing of these vaccines also follow the recommended vaccine schedules for children birth through 6 years and children/adolescents 7-18 years of age.
Vaccination records
Share your student’s updated Certificate of Immunization with their school every time they receive a vaccine. Need to find your student’s vaccine record? Visit COVaxRecords.org for more information.
Exclusion from school
If there is an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease at your student’s school, and your student has not received the vaccine for that disease, they may be excluded from school for many days. That could mean lost learning time for them and lost work and wages for you. For example, if your student is not up to date with their MMR vaccines, they may need to stay home from school for 21 days after someone gets sick with measles.
Exemptions from one or more school-required vaccines
If your student cannot get vaccines for medical reasons, you must submit a Certificate of Medical Exemption to your school. If you choose not to have your student vaccinated for nonmedical reasons, you must submit a Certificate of Nonmedical Exemption to your school. Nonmedical exemptions must be submitted on an annual basis. Find more information about exemptions at https://cdphe.colorado.gov/exemptions-to-school-required-vaccines.
Have questions?
Talk with a health care provider or your local public health agency to ask questions and find out which vaccines your student needs. Find a vaccine provider at cdphe.colorado.gov/get-vaccinated. Read about the benefits and importance of vaccines at
cdc.gov/vaccines-children/about/index.html, childvaccineco.org, ImmunizeForGood.com, and cdphe.colorado.gov/immunization-education.
Staying up to date on routine immunizations is important for adults as well as children. It's never too late for adults to get back on track! Learn more at
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines-adults/recommended-vaccines/.
Finding and paying for vaccinations
If you need help finding free or low-cost vaccines, go to COVax4Kids.org,
https://cdphe.colorado.gov/immunizations/get-vaccinated, or dial 2-1-1 for information on Health First Colorado(Medicaid) and vaccine clinics in your area.
How is your school doing on vaccinations?
Annually, schools and child cares must report immunization and exemption numbers (but not student names or birthdates) to the state health department. Schools do not control their specific immunization and exemption rates or establish the Vaccinated Children Standard of 95% for all school-required vaccines, described in §25-4-911, CRS.
Your child's school's immunization rates from the 2023-24 school year. (Find 2023-24 school year and prior years’ data at COVaxRates.org).
