Low vaccination rates could put some San Antonio schools at increased risk for measles outbreaks

At least a dozen San Antonio private and charter schools face could face elevated risk of measles outbreaks due to students’ low vaccination rates, state records and data from the Center for Disease Control show.

Texas’ worst measles outbreak in 30 years potentially made its way to the Alamo City last week when an infected visitor from West Texas potentially came into contact with “hundreds of thousands” of local residents, local health officials said. The person visited UTSA, the River Walk and other highly trafficked areas on Feb. 14-15.

As concern grows about the disease’s local spread, state records show some 95% of San Antonio kindergarteners are up to date on their MMR vaccines, which protect against measles and other infectious ailments. However, that rate may be considerably lower at some private and charter campuses, according to the data.

Indeed, at least 12 Alamo City schools — all private or charter institutions — have student bodies where 90% or fewer kindergarteners are vaccinated, according to Texas Health and Human Services  (HHS) department data. That threshold puts them at a considerably higher risk for a measles outbreak.

A vaccination rate around 95% is considered “herd immunity” against measles, lessening the risk of serious outbreaks, according to the CDC. However, a rate of 90% or below results in a high probability of an outbreak should there be exposure to the disease, the federal agency cautions.

Even so, officials at least one San Antonio school said the Texas numbers can be misleading, especially if a campus is small and some kindergarten students received their MMR vaccinations outside the state.

Here are the 12 San Antonio private and charter schools that had vaccination rates of 90% or lower, according to HHS data:

• San Antonio Country Day Montessori: 40%
• The Gathering Place: 60%
• Bexar County Academy: 70%
• San Antonio Christian School: 80%
• Buckner Fanning School at Mission Spring: 82%
• Heritage Academy: 86%
• The Atonement Catholic Academy: 87%
• Royal Public Schools (Charter): 87%
• Great Hearts Texas: 89%
• Cornerstone Christian: 90%
• St. John Berchman’s School: 90%
• Scenic Hills Christian School: 90%

San Antonio Country Day Montessori School appears to be at the greatest risk for a measles outbreak, if HHS records are correct. Only 40% of its kindergarteners received their MMR vaccine last school year.

The risk of an outbreak at that private campus exceeds 78% should one child be infected with measles, according to CDC modeling.

The Gathering Place, a controversy-mired campus that recently lost its state charter, is the school with the second-highest risk of a measles outbreak, followed by charter school Bexar County Academy, state records show.

In an unsigned email statement, Country Day Montessori told the Current it considers vaccinations a “personal choice made by families in accordance with their values and beliefs.” Further, school staff “respect the rights of all parents to make informed health decisions for their families while ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.”

The school’s statement continued: “In alignment with Texas state law, parents may claim an exemption from immunization requirements for medical reasons or reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs. The Texas Department of State Health Services provides guidance on the exemption process for families who choose this option.”

Celinda Camacho, principal of Bexar County Academy, said all the students on her campus are vaccinated. The school’s 70% score in HHS records reflects a quirk of how the state gathers its data, she added.

Of the school’s 16-student kindergarten class, three received MMR jabs outside the state or in another country. Texas requires parents have out-of-state vaccine records certified with HHS before they’re counted in the database, according to Camacho.

While the parents of those three kindergarteners in question haven’t yet taken the steps to get state certification, Camacho said their vaccination records met the school’s requirements.

“All of our students are vaccinated,” she said. “What we’re talking about is paperwork.”

The Current reached out to The Gathering Place for comment but got no response by press time.

Camacho added that Bexar County Academy sends letters to parents in English and Spanish about community health issues such as the potential measles outbreak. The school’s small size — 165 students — allows it to have open channels of communication when such risks arise, she added.

Texas health officials have so far recorded 124 measles cases, largely in an area south of the Panhandle. An unvaccinated child in Lubbock became the outbreak’s first fatality on Wednesday.

Most of the cases in the current measles outbreak are in children, and most of the patients are either unvaccinated or have unknown vaccinated status, according to state health officials. During a measles outbreak, about one in five people who get sick will need hospital care and one in 20 will develop pneumonia, state data indicate.

“About 30% of people who develop measles will develop complications,” University Health Chief Epidemiologist and UT Health infectious disease specialist Dr. Jason Bowling said in an online Q&A. “The most common one is diarrhea, but … children can get otitis media, or ear infections. Measles virus itself can cause pneumonia. And about one in 1,000 people can have measles virus infect their brain and spinal cord and cause encephalitis, which can cause significant problems, including coma and death.”

San Antonio Current Editor-in-Chief Sanford Nowlin contributed to this report.

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This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2025.