The first school-by-school assessments of child immunization rates to be released by Connecticut show more than three dozen schools with kindergarten immunization rates below the 95-percent threshold that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say is necessary to provide "herd immunity" for a community.

The data sets posted Friday by the Department of Public Health reverse agency policy against publication, which was being challenged in a freedom-of-information complaint filed by state Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, and it comes amid a national measles outbreak and a legislative debate over whether to end the religious exemptions to vaccinations otherwise mandated.

The overall immunization rates of Connecticut schoolchildren is more than 98 percent, but the newly released data show some schools with high rates of unvaccinated children, exempted for either medical or religious reasons.

At the Six-Six Magnet School in Bridgeport, 15 percent of the entering kindergarten students claimed a religious exemption, as did 12.5 percent at Ryerson Elementary in Madison. At the public Glenville School in Greenwich, 11.8 percent were unvaccinated, mostly claiming medical exemptions.

"This data is startling and needs to be addressed," Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement. "This cannot become a public health crisis as we have seen in other states. Making sure all of our young students in Connecticut are safe is the number one priority."

Religious exemptions to vaccinations for students entering kindergarten remain relatively rare, but they have nearly quadrupled since the 2003-04 school year, from 316 to 1,255.

At Greenwich Catholic School, 7.3 percent of the students had religious exemptions allowing them to enter school without vaccinations for measles, mumps, rubella and other infectious diseases. The Catholic Church has no religious restrictions on vaccinations, as is the case with every major religious denomination in the U.S.

The release comes as the United States is experiencing the worst outbreak of measles since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. Almost 700 cases of measles have been confirmed in 22 states, including three in Connecticut.

Renee D. Coleman-Mitchell, the newly appointed public health commissioner, announced earlier this week in a letter to school superintendents that the department would be posting the school-level detailed information to raise public awareness of immunization rates in local communities.

In the letter, she said that more awareness "may lead to increased engagement and focus on increasing immunization rates to reduce the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases."

"Today's data from the state Department of Public Health bears out what many of us feared," said Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven. "The immunization level is dangerously low in a significant number of schools and communities putting the public's health at risk. This is a matter of grave public health concern."

House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, who is married to a pediatrician, said he and his staff were trying to digest the data, which he says must be reviewed with public health and education officials.

"But there is no question the number is shocking," Ritter said.

Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, cautioned against an overreaction. There have been only three reported measles cases in Connecticut, and he has yet to see a rationale for the state to overrule parents who object to some or all childhood vaccinations.

"It's about balancing the public health with the individual right to choose," Candelora said.

"Religious freedom does not allow you to put a cloak around yourself and ignore the realities of other people. It does not give you a blanket license to just do anything you want," Ritter said.

As Coleman-Mitchell explained in her letter to superintendents, a disease outbreak is less likely to occur in schools where high numbers of students have been immunized and "herd immunity" is established.

"When almost all the children have immunity, a disease is much less likely to appear at the school and infect children who have not been vaccinated," she said in the letter. "Herd immunity is achieved when the vaccination rate in a community is high enough to protect unvaccinated children."

She said that this is especially important for medically fragile children who cannot be safely vaccinated but are less able to fight off illness if they are infected. "Consequently, this information bears special importance to the parents or guardians of such children, who may wish to access information about their child's school vaccination rates for their child's protection."

Parents are now able to exempt a child from the vaccination requirement for medical or religious reasons. In addition, students with proof of immunity to certain diseases such as measles or mumps may be counted as vaccinated.

The data show that many of the schools with high rates of unvaccinated students are Christian academies and Montessori schools.

Ritter and Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, the co-chair of the legislature's Committee on Children, were noncommittal about pursuing legislation before the session ends on June. 5.

"It's certainly not something that we can decide overnight, so I look forward to a continuing conversation," Linehan said. "If we did decide to go ahead and eliminate the religious exemption, some of these schools would be hitting the herd immunity rate. We need to continue to look at that. That's an important point."

Kathleen Megan and Mark Pazniokas are reporters for The Connecticut Mirror (www.ctmirror.org). Copyright 2019 © The Connecticut Mirror.

kmegan@ctmirror.org

mpazniokas@ctmirror.org