When measles hit West Texas, school absences soared, and it wasn’t just sick kids who were out

When a measles outbreak hit West Texas last year, school absences surged to levels far beyond the number of children who likely became sick, according to a study, as students were excluded or kept home by their families to minimize the spread of the disease. Absences in Seminole Independent School District, a school system that served students at the heart of the outbreak, climbed 41% across all grade levels compared with the same period in the two previous years, according to the Stanford University study. The preliminary study, which has not been published or finished a formal peer review, offers a glimpse at the toll on student learning from the spread of measles, a highly contagious disease that has crept up in communities around the U.S. with low vaccination rates. In Texas and nationally, about two-thirds of measles cases have been among unvaccinated children. When measles is spreading, public health officials respond by excluding unvaccinated students from schools. "The costs of that absenteeism are just not among the sick kids, but all the kids who are kept out of school as a precaution," said Thomas Dee, a Stanford economist and education professor who co-authored the study. Measles is airborne and poses a severe risk for young children. In 2000, the illness was declared eradicated in the U.S., thanks to the widespread usage of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. In recent years, more parents have sought exemptions to school requirements for the shots, and most states are below the 95% kindergarten vaccination rate that experts say is needed to prevent outbreaks. In Seminole Independent School District, only 77% of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles in the 2024–2025 school year, according to state health department data. The measles upsurge there launched the United States' worst measles year in more than three decades, sickening 762 people across Texas in seven months. That number could have been even higher. The Texas Department of State Health Services says there were an additional 182 potential measles cases reported in March 2025 among children in surrounding Gaines County that the state excluded from its count due to a lack of information. This article was provided by The Associated Press.