Florida wants to remove vaccine mandates. What does that mean for Miami-Dade schools?
Just weeks into the new school year, Florida’s surgeon general Joseph Ladapo announced the state is going to be working to eliminate all vaccine mandates.
Ladapo, who made the announcement at a press conference Wednesday, said forcing vaccine mandates is “wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
He did not offer specific policy information but promised to end “every last one of them.”
All 50 states and Washington, D.C., have laws requiring certain vaccines for students to attend school. Florida is the first state to publicly call for doing away with such requirements.
Florida immunization requirements for students include vaccines against polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B among others.
While it’s too early to know how ending the vaccine mandate will be implemented in schools, public health professionals and doctors warn that eliminating vaccines for students creates a preventable public health risk.
Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Miami Herald in a statement Wednesday that vaccines are especially important inside schools where students are in close contact and diseases can spread easily.
“When children are sick and miss school, caregivers also miss work, which not only impacts those families but also the local economy.”
Richard M. Carpiano, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside, who has studied vaccination hesitancy says, “This is completely public health in reverse.”
“This is really madness,” he said. “We have a responsibility to protect the public, and this is going to put children at risk.”
Alissa and Carpiano both noted that ultimately this decision may not only negatively impact public health but also the economy, as the state will have to respond to disease epidemics and crises that may result from this decision.
Before this decision was announced, South Florida had already seen declines in vaccination rates.
According to data from the Florida Department of Health reported by WUSF, Miami-Dade saw a 2.9 percent decline in kindergarten immunization rates between 2019 and 2025, while Broward experienced a 10 percent drop.
But vaccination rates in South Florida are still higher than the state average. State data also shows that in 2024, 81 percent of two-year-olds in Miami-Dade received their basic immunizations, compared to 75.7 percent statewide. Two-year-olds who received their basic vaccines in Miami-Dade has fluctuated in recent years, after peaking at 93.1 percent in 2018.
In 2024, Manatee Bay K-5 school in Broward County had a measles outbreak that affected seven children.
This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 1,431 measles cases nationwide, six of them in Florida. There were 11 cases of measles in the state in 2024.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has historically partnered with the University of Miami Health System to provide mobile vaccine clinics throughout the district.
Until now, parents who strongly opposed vaccination could seek exemptions for medical or religious reasons.
Claudia Montano, a mother of a student at Biscayne Beach Elementary in Miami Beach had gotten a religious exemption for her 14-year-old son so that he would not have to be vaccinated.
As for Wednesday’s announcement, Montano said she is fine with it. “I actually don’t believe in vaccines. The last time I put a vaccine in my kid, he got a little bit worse,” she said of her 6-year-old, who she said is autistic and was vaccinated in order to enroll in school.
“I kind of regret it,” she said.
But other parents at the school disagree.
“I think vaccines are important and prevent bigger crises,” said Maria Sanchez, a mother of a first-grader at Biscayne Beach Elementary school who works as a respiratory therapist.
“How can something like this be decided without any input? Why have we not been able to vote on that?” said the mother.
Governor Ron DeSantis and Ladapo can make some changes without passing a bill, but removing vaccine mandates completely would require the Legislature to sign off.
Miami-Dade school board member Steve Gallon says he hopes the legislature maintains that status quo, which he says saves lives.
Osmani Gonzalez, president of the Miami Dade County Council of PTAs, told the Miami Herald that this is the type of policy that “creates the possibility of preventable tragedies and the unnecessary loss of children’s lives within our schools.”
Ricky Junquera, communications director for the United Teachers of Dade, said the union is still waiting to hear what the state’s plan entails, but noted: “From our standpoint, for decades, school vaccinations and requirements have played a role in keeping classrooms healthy.”
In a statement, the teachers’ union said they are “deeply concerned about the Governor’s announcement.”
“These proven, science-based protections prevent the spread of dangerous diseases, safeguard the most vulnerable among us, and ensure that students can focus on learning without unnecessary health risks,” the statement read.
Junquera added that the union hopes to work with parents and health experts to ensure any changes do not harm the community.
A representative from Miami-Dade County Public Schools said in a statement that the district is aware of the announcement and will continue to follow all state laws as they await official guidance from the Florida Department of Health and Florida Department of Education.
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 3:46 PM.
