The Dallas Morning News – Eddie Bernice Johnson
“Far too many of our students go to school without the proper vaccinations, and that poses a major health risk to us all. In our state, the number of unvaccinated children has increased drastically since 2003, when the Texas Legislature expanded the exemptions to include non-medical reasons. From 2003 to 2018, the number of such exemptions spiked from just over 2,000 to an estimated 57,000 for kindergarten through 12th grade students. To put this in perspective, the number of exempted students is higher than all of the students enrolled in Dallas ISD, and also more than the combined total of students in the Desoto, Coppell, Carroll, Highland Park, Cedar Hill, Lancaster and Lake Dallas ISDs.” (more)