Everything Parents Need To Know About Going Back To School & The Measles Outbreaks

There have been 1,333 cases of measles nationwide in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While that doesn’t sound like many, it’s significantly more cases than the 285 confirmed in 2024. The majority of this year’s cases happened in Texas, but cases have been reported in 40 states. Of those 1,333 people, more than half were children, and 92% of them were unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination status.

We’ve been hearing about the rise in measles cases since last year, but the numbers just keep climbing. And as we prepare to send our kids back to school this August, infectious disease experts are concerned.

“Pediatricians are worried about declining vaccination rates in general and those leading to increased cases of measles and outbreaks, as we saw this past year. Vaccination rates for MMR, which is the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, have been declining. We need about 95% of the community to be vaccinated to have that community immunity, but in many places, those rates are much lower. And nationally, when we look at kids entering kindergarten who are fully vaccinated, it's a little less than 93% of kindergartners,” says Dr. Katie Lockwood, a board-certified pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and associate professor of pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine.

So, if you’re sending little ones off to school this month, here’s everything you need to know about measles, exposures, and yes, vaccines.

Are pediatricians worried about more outbreaks as everyone returns to school?

In short, yes. This is because, naturally, “outbreaks are a concern when vaccination rates fall below what's recommended,” Lockwood says. But it also has to do with all the traveling families do over the summer. Many of the measles outbreaks in the U.S. in the past year resulted from unvaccinated individuals traveling, being exposed, and returning home carrying measles.

“Many cases that we’re seeing are in people who are recent return travelers,” Lockwood notes. “A lot of people take end-of-summer trips right before they return to school. If your child has a fever, stay home and make sure that they’re OK before you send them back to school. We really don’t want sick kids going to school in the beginning and sharing their germs with everybody else.”

Dr. Liz May, a board-certified pediatrician at Texas Children’s, adds, “Starting school is a time we worry about disease transmission in general. There is some worry with kids going back to school. We’re seeing more spread in communities, and a lot more cases overall. Measles is actually the most contagious disease we have. If we have 100 unprotected people in a room and one person has measles, 90 to 100 of the people in that room are going to be infected.”

With all of this in mind, I ask Lockwood how likely it is that any of our children actually come home having been exposed to measles, and her answer is reassuring: “There’s no threat to you when it’s not in your community. It’s a potential threat, but not an actual threat in most places. This is something very important to vaccinate against to prevent this as a possibility.”

Why does the measles vaccine matter so much?

The best way to prevent your child from getting measles is to vaccinate them, according to May, Lockwood, and all major medical authorities. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that babies receive their first MMR vaccine at 12 months of age and a second dose between the ages of 4 and 6 months. The first dose of the vaccine is 93% effective at preventing measles, May says, which increases to between 97% and 99% with the second dose.

The vaccine is crucial to preventing the spread of measles because, really, there is nothing else anyone can do. Unlike other illnesses we worry about our children catching at school, from strep to colds to the flu, measles is airborne. Washing their hands and not sharing food or drinks is not enough to keep a child from catching it, Lockwood says. “Measles is airborne and can be in the air for two hours after an infected person was there. There’s nothing that your individual child can do to prevent them from getting measles if someone in school has measles.” So if one child in the cafeteria has measles, everyone else who enters for lunch within the next two hours is now powerless to prevent infection unless they are vaccinated.

If you’re sending a child off to school but have a baby who hasn’t been vaccinated yet or a toddler who’s only had one of their two shots, what then? As long as the family members old enough to be vaccinated are, Lockwood says you’ve taken all the right steps to protect younger children in the home.

Earlier this year, some Texas parents made headlines for giving their children vitamin A in hopes that it would protect them against measles, resulting in liver damage. It is worth noting that this is not recommended by any medical authorities as a safe or effective way to prevent measles. Only the vaccine is.

“Vaccination is the most important way to prevent getting measles. Nine out of 10 non-immune children will get infected if they’re exposed. Most American children are not deficient in vitamin A, and therefore taking extra vitamin A is not going to help prevent them from getting sick, and in many cases can cause harm because this is something that you can take too much of,” Lockwood says.

If you’re looking for evidence-based information about vaccines, Lockwood directs parents to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center website or the AAP — and away from social media and unscientific sources. Measles infection can also cause secondary neurodegenerative illnesses that may not take hold until seven to 10 years later in a child’s life, and May encourages parents to weigh this when considering vaccination.

What should you do if your child has been exposed or if there’s an outbreak in your community?

There are steps you can take to help your child fare better if they are exposed to measles.

The vaccine isn’t just a method of prevention; it’s really the only “treatment” available, too, May points out. “That is the way to stop spread and prevent children from getting measles. There is no treatment for measles, and the main post-exposure intervention is to get the vaccine if you have not had it.”

While it’s incredibly unlikely to happen, what should you do if a measles outbreak does begin in your area? If you hear about a measles case in your community and your child may have been exposed, Lockwood advises calling your pediatrician right away.

“If you’ve been exposed but you’re not sick yet, these are ways that we can try to help boost your immune system so you potentially won't get it. If you’ve had an exposure and it’s within the past three days, you can get the MMR vaccine as a post-exposure kind of prevention. And if it’s longer than that, and it's maybe four to six days ago that you had the exposure, there is an immunoglobulin that you can take.”

If you have older children in school and a baby or toddler at home, having the older child and adults in your home fully vaccinated is “protective and life-saving” for the younger siblings, May says. “You would just be monitoring for symptoms, because it is rare but technically possible for them to contract measles. Have that discussion with your pediatrician about what to look for and if a patient qualifies for a vaccine or additional preventive care.”

In the event of an outbreak in your community, you can talk to your pediatrician about vaccinating babies as young as 6 months. “You can get the MMR vaccine early, and that's something that, if there becomes an outbreak in your community, your pediatrician may recommend,” says Lockwood. The reason infants younger than 12 months usually don’t receive an MMR isn’t because it’s unsafe. Their body simply doesn’t mount the same immune response as it does when they’re older, and so that shot doesn’t count toward the two-shot series needed to ensure immunity. So, it’s just an extra poke for the baby that doctors generally try to avoid unless there is a real risk of measles exposure.

Ultimately, there is a very, very slim chance that measles plays any part in your child’s return to school this year. Hopefully, this information helps put your mind at ease, knowing that there are things you can do even during an outbreak to protect your family, and serves as a reminder that prevention is quick, easy, and uncontested among medical experts.