Florida’s school vaccine laws are staying in place as bill hits dead end

House speaker shuts down the debate

Florida’s push to expand vaccine exemptions for schoolchildren is dead for the year. House Speaker Daniel Perez confirmed on March 5 that the House would not take up the legislation this session.

HB 917 never made it through the committee process, and Perez said he had no plans to bring it up. The Senate had moved its own version forward, but without House action, the bill cannot become law.

The regular session ends March 13.

Senate bill would have changed exemption rules

The Senate version, SB 1756, cleared the Senate Rules Committee on March 4 with a 14-8 vote. Sen. Clay Yarborough, a Republican from Jacksonville, sponsored the bill, which he titled the “Medical Freedom Act.”

It would have created a new “conscience” exemption, letting parents pull their kids out of school-required vaccines for any reason. Right now, Florida only allows exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

The bill also included a provision for behind-the-counter ivermectin sales without a prescription.

Some Republicans broke ranks on the vote

The bill didn’t have full Republican support. Two GOP senators voted against it in committee, including Sen. Colleen Burton of Polk County.

Burton tried to add an amendment that would have let private schools keep their own vaccine rules, but the committee voted it down.

She argued the bill took away medical freedom from families who do vaccinate and send their kids to school alongside unvaccinated students.

Thirteen Republicans and one independent voted yes, while all Democrats voted no.

DeSantis made vaccine rollbacks a top priority

Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed hard for this bill in his eighth and final regular session.

He and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced in September 2025 that they wanted to remove all vaccine mandates from Florida law.

First Lady Casey DeSantis and Ladapo publicly backed the House version, HB 917, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Holcomb, a Republican from Spring Hill.

DeSantis also created a state-level Make America Healthy Again Commission to push broader medical freedom policies.

Legislature resists DeSantis for a second year

This marks the second straight year the Legislature has rejected the governor’s vaccine agenda. A scaled-back bill also failed during the 2025 session.

That version focused on stopping health care providers from denying care based on vaccination status, but the Senate stripped the key vaccine language before passing it.

The back-to-back failures show a clear pattern: even with Republican majorities, lawmakers have not been willing to go as far as DeSantis wants on vaccines.

Infighting slowed the whole session down

The vaccine bill wasn’t the only thing that stalled.

The 2026 session saw major clashes between House and Senate Republican leaders on property taxes, AI regulation, education and other big issues.

With just over a week left, only about 22 bills had passed both chambers.

House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said lawmakers wasted the session on fighting within their own party. That gridlock made it even harder for any single bill to break through.

Measles cases keep climbing across Florida

Meanwhile, measles cases in Florida keep rising. CDC data through late February showed about 107 confirmed cases, making Florida the state with the third-most cases in the country.

State health department numbers through Feb. 21 counted about 114 confirmed and suspected cases across 11 counties. Most of the cases centered in Collier County, tied to an outbreak at Ave Maria University.

About 85 of the 104 confirmed state-reported cases involved people aged 15 to 24.

Ave Maria outbreak drives most cases

The outbreak at Ave Maria University in Collier County accounted for roughly three-quarters of all Florida’s cases. As of state data through Feb. 21, Collier County alone had 82 confirmed cases.

The university said the vast majority of students and staff on campus had been vaccinated. The Florida Department of Health sent teams on-site to provide care and guidance as the outbreak spread.

Florida’s vaccination rate trails the nation

Florida’s kindergarten MMR vaccination rate sat at about 89% for the 2024-25 school year. The national average was about 93%.

The CDC says schools need about 95% coverage to maintain herd immunity against measles. Florida’s childhood vaccination rate has been dropping steadily since 2016, when it was around 94%.

The state’s vaccine exemption rate among children aged 5 to 17 was about 6%, well above the national average of about 4%.

National measles numbers add more pressure

The national picture isn’t any better. More than 1,130 confirmed measles cases had been reported across the country as of late February, already about half the total for all of 2025.

South Carolina led the nation with about 653 cases, followed by Utah and then Florida.

The U.S. first declared measles eliminated in 2000, but health officials say the country now risks losing that status if cases keep climbing at this pace.

DeSantis still has options after the session ends

The regular session ends March 13, though lawmakers could extend it.

DeSantis’s administration has said the Department of Health can revise rules for some vaccines that are mandated through regulation rather than state law.

But vaccines required by statute, like those for measles, polio and whooping cough, need the Legislature to act.

The issue could come back in a special session or in future years, but DeSantis is term-limited and cannot run for governor again.

Current law still requires key childhood vaccines

Florida law requires children entering school or day care to get vaccinated against polio, diphtheria, measles, rubella, pertussis, mumps and tetanus.

Exemptions are only available for valid medical reasons or religious beliefs. School districts must give parents guides about the importance of immunizations.

The state also requires certain vaccinations for college students and nursing home residents.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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