Florida’s plan to loosen school vaccination requirements will not take effect for about three months and, for now, will cover only a handful of diseases, state health officials said Sunday.
The change — announced last week by Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo — would make the state the first in the nation to shift from mandatory childhood immunizations to a voluntary system, leaving the decision to parents.
According to the Department of Health, the rule would eliminate school vaccination requirements for hepatitis B, chickenpox, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), and pneumococcal diseases such as meningitis.
It would not affect immunizations against polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis, mumps, or tetanus unless the Legislature votes to expand the policy. Lawmakers are not scheduled to reconvene until January 2026.
“The Department initiated the rule change on September 3, 2025, and anticipates the rule change will not be effective for approximately 90 days,” officials said in an email to The Associated Press. Florida’s school year began in August.
Ladapo defended the move in a Sunday interview on CNN, framing it as a matter of parental choice. “If you want them, God bless, you can have as many as you want,” he said. “And if you don’t want them, parents should have the ability and the power to decide what goes into their children’s bodies.”
Florida already allows families to claim religious exemptions from vaccine mandates. But medical experts warn that a broader rollback could endanger public health.
“Making vaccines voluntary puts students and school staff at risk,” said Dr. Rana Alissa, chair of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The debate comes amid a resurgence of infectious diseases nationwide. The U.S. is experiencing its worst measles outbreak in more than 30 years, with over 1,400 cases and three deaths reported this year, most in Texas. Whooping cough has also surged, causing at least three child deaths and more than 19,000 reported infections as of late August, according to preliminary CDC data.
Vaccines have prevented at least 154 million deaths worldwide in the past half-century, most among infants and children, according to the World Health Organization.
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