Students Provisionally Enrolled Due to Vaccination Requirements: Variation in State Laws and Rates

This research examined the laws and regulations surrounding provisional enrollment in schools across the United States. Provisional enrollment refers to children who have started, but not completed, their required vaccinations and are allowed to attend school while completing their vaccinations. We found that nearly all states have laws regarding provisional enrollment, with 5 essential components to compare the laws including vaccine- and dose-specific requirements, type of personnel permitted to authorize, length of time that the children have to become up to date on their vaccinations (grace period), follow-up procedures, and consequences for noncompliance. In addition, we found that the percentage of provisionally enrolled kindergarteners varied greatly from state to state, with some states having less than 1% of provisionally enrolled kindergarteners and others having more than 8% between school years 2015-2016 and 2020-2021. We suggest that reducing the number of provisional entrants could be an alternative intervention to increase vaccination coverage.