California School Immunization Record: Requirements, Exemptions, and Transfers

To enroll in a California public or private school, from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade, your child must have documented proof of specific vaccinations. The same California school immunization requirements apply to childcare centers, preschools, nursery schools, and family day care homes. Parents give the school a valid immunization record, and the school is legally required to check it, enforce the rules, and keep the file on hand for every enrolled student.¹

Vaccines Required for TK Through 12th Grade

Students entering any grade from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade need records showing all of the following:²

DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis): 5 doses. Four doses are acceptable if one was given on or after the child’s 4th birthday; three doses are acceptable if one was given on or after the 7th birthday.
Polio: 4 doses. Three doses are acceptable if one was given on or after the 4th birthday. Oral polio doses given on or after April 1, 2016, do not count.
Hepatitis B: 3 doses. Required at admission to any grade except 7th grade.
MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella): 2 doses, both on or after the child’s 1st birthday.
Varicella (chickenpox): 2 doses.

These requirements apply equally to public and private schools.³ The dose exceptions matter in practice. If your child received a polio dose after turning four, three total doses satisfy the requirement rather than four. Ask your pediatrician whether your child qualifies for any of the reduced-dose allowances before scheduling additional appointments.

The 7th Grade Tdap Booster

Students advancing to 7th grade need one additional vaccine on top of the K-12 list: a Tdap booster (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) given on or after the child’s 7th birthday.² This booster is usually given around age 11. Schools check for it specifically during the 7th-grade immunization assessment, and a student without documentation of the dose will not be unconditionally admitted.⁴

Hepatitis B is not required at the 7th-grade checkpoint if the student was previously admitted at an earlier grade.⁵

Vaccines Required for Childcare and Preschool

Children entering childcare, preschool, or any pre-kindergarten program face a schedule that depends on their age at the time of admission. Unlike the K-12 list, this schedule includes Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) and scales up as the child gets older:⁶

2 through 3 months: 1 Polio, 1 DTaP, 1 Hep B, 1 Hib
4 through 5 months: 2 Polio, 2 DTaP, 2 Hep B, 2 Hib
6 through 14 months: 2 Polio, 3 DTaP, 2 Hep B, 2 Hib
15 through 17 months: 3 Polio, 3 DTaP, 2 Hep B, 1 Varicella, and (on or after the 1st birthday) 1 Hib and 1 MMR
18 months through 5 years: 3 Polio, 4 DTaP, 3 Hep B, 1 Varicella, and (on or after the 1st birthday) 1 Hib and 1 MMR

One Hib dose must be given on or after the child’s first birthday regardless of how many earlier doses the child received, and Hib is only required for children under five. For pre-kindergarten, only inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) counts; oral polio does not.⁶

What Counts as a Valid Immunization Record

Schools need documentation detailed enough to confirm every required dose. A valid personal immunization record includes four pieces of information:⁷

The child’s name and date of birth
The type of vaccine received
The exact date (month, day, and year) each dose was given
The name of the physician or clinic that administered the vaccine

Several formats work. The most common is the yellow California Immunization Record card given to parents by a doctor’s office. An official printout from a medical provider is accepted, as are records accessed through the California Immunization Registry (CAIR). Records from other states and countries are also acceptable as long as they contain the required details.⁷

Submitting Records and Conditional Admission

Give the records to school or childcare staff at registration or before the first day of attendance. A school nurse or trained administrator reviews them and decides whether your child qualifies for unconditional admission, needs conditional admission, or must be excluded until vaccinations are completed.⁸

A child who has started the required series but hasn’t finished it can still enroll under conditional admission, provided the child is not currently due for any doses at the time of enrollment. The school notifies parents of the dates by which the remaining doses must be completed.⁹

Conditional admission comes with ongoing monitoring. The school reviews the file at least every 30 days, informs parents of remaining required doses, and updates the record. A conditionally admitted student who fails to receive the next required dose by the specified deadline must be excluded from attendance until the immunization is completed.¹⁰

This is where families most often get caught. The 30-day reviews happen whether you’re paying attention or not, and a child who falls behind the catch-up schedule can lose their seat with very little warning. If your child is conditionally admitted, put every dose deadline on your calendar and book the appointments well ahead.

Transfers From Other States or Countries

Students transferring into a California school from another U.S. state, in any grade from kindergarten through 12th grade, get a temporary grace period. If the new school hasn’t received immunization records at the time of admission, the student may attend for up to 30 school days while records are obtained. If the records still haven’t arrived at the end of that period, the school must exclude the student until the parent produces documentation of compliance.⁹

Children entering a California school from another country face stricter rules. There is no grace period. Schools are instructed to obtain records from the parents immediately rather than wait for records from the previous country. If the family has no personal records, if doses are missing, or if the foreign records are in a language the school cannot read, the school refers the family to their physician or local health department. CDPH publishes a reference list of foreign vaccine names to help schools interpret international records.⁷

What to Do If You Can’t Find the Records

Lost records are a common problem, especially for families who have moved or changed doctors. California offers several ways to track down what’s already on file:¹¹

The state’s Digital Vaccine Record portal lets you request a copy of your immunization record from the California Immunization Registry (CAIR).¹²
Contact the doctor’s office or clinic that most recently gave the vaccines. If your child received shots at multiple locations, you may need to call each one.
Previous schools are required to maintain immunization records and may be able to look up old files.
Any pharmacy where vaccines were administered should have records on file.
Baby books and personal files sometimes contain copies of immunization records.

If you can’t locate any documentation at all, your child’s doctor can evaluate what vaccines are needed and restart the series. In some cases a blood test (a titer) can confirm immunity to certain diseases without re-vaccination. CDPH recognizes serologic evidence of immunity for diseases including measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella in some settings, though for K-12 purposes you should discuss this option with your child’s school and physician.

Medical Exemptions Are the Only Opt-Out

A medical exemption is the only way to bypass California’s immunization requirements. The state eliminated personal belief exemptions, so there is no religious or philosophical opt-out.¹³

To obtain a medical exemption, a licensed physician (MD or DO) must examine the child and determine that a specific vaccine is medically unsafe for that child. Since January 1, 2021, the standardized electronic form processed through the California Immunization Registry – Medical Exemption (CAIR-ME) system is the only medical exemption documentation schools may accept.¹⁴

The process works like this: the parent registers for a CAIR-ME account, completes the required fields, and receives a Medical Exemption Request Number. The parent gives that number to the child’s doctor, who logs in to CAIR-ME, enters the medical information, and issues the exemption.¹⁵ The physician must list each exempted vaccine separately and describe the medical basis for each.¹⁴

Medical exemptions can be permanent or temporary. A temporary exemption cannot exceed one year, and no exemption of any kind extends beyond the child’s current grade span (birth to preschool, kindergarten through 6th grade, or 7th through 12th grade). CDPH reviews exemptions annually and can revoke those that don’t meet applicable American Academy of Pediatrics criteria; if an exemption is revoked, the family has 30 calendar days to begin the required catch-up schedule for the child to stay in school, unless an appeal is filed within that same window.¹⁴

Home-Based Schooling and Independent Study

California’s immunization requirements do not apply to students enrolled in a home-based private school or an independent study program that does not involve classroom-based instruction.³ If a home-schooled student later enrolls in a traditional school, they must meet every requirement at that point.

Help Paying for Required Vaccines

Cost should not keep a child from being vaccinated. The federal Vaccines for Children (VFC) program provides vaccines at no charge to children under 19 who are uninsured, enrolled in Medicaid, American Indian or Alaska Native, or underinsured (health insurance that doesn’t cover vaccines or charges copays for them). Underinsured children can receive VFC vaccines at Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics. Children enrolled in a separate CHIP program are considered insured and do not qualify for VFC.¹⁶ Local health departments throughout California also run low-cost or free immunization clinics.

1
California Department of Public Health. California School Immunization Law
2
California Department of Public Health. California School Immunization Record Requirements
3
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 120335
4
California Department of Public Health. 7th Grade Immunization Assessment Instructions
5
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 120325-120335
6
California Department of Public Health. Shots Required for Child Care/Preschool
7
California Department of Public Health. California Immunization Handbook
8
Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations 17 CCR 6025 – Unconditional Admission
9
Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations 17 CCR 6035 – Conditional Admission
10
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 120375
11
California Department of Public Health. Where to Get Immunized and Find Records
12
California Department of Public Health. California Immunization Registry
13
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 120370
14
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code 120372
15
California Department of Public Health. California Immunization Registry Medical Exemption IMM-1363 Instructions
16
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program Eligibility