What Vaccines Does My Child Need Before Starting Kindergarten in Ohio?

You’ve registered your child for kindergarten, bought the backpack, and maybe even started planning their lunches.

If your child hasn’t received their vaccines, though, there’s something you need to take care of before the first day of school.

In Ohio, it’s required to provide proof of certain vaccinations for all students entering kindergarten. 

If you don’t have a record on file within 14 days of the school year starting, your child may not be allowed to stay in school.

Our physicians at Central Ohio Primary Care will get you prepared by informing you of exactly what’s required and what you need to know before the school year starts.

Featured image sourced from The Columbus Dispatch. 

Ohio’s Vaccine Requirements for Kindergarten

Ohio’s school immunization requirements are governed by Ohio Revised Code 3313.67 and 3313.671. To enter kindergarten, your child must have documentation of the following vaccines:

Sources: Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Revised Code 3313.67 and 3313.671; confirmed via ODH K-12 Vaccine Requirements

Here are a couple of important nuances for you to keep in mind about some of the vaccines:

• DTaP timing matters. If your child received all four doses before their 4th birthday, a fifth dose is required. If the fourth dose was given on or after the 4th birthday, four doses are sufficient.
• Polio timing matters too. The final polio dose must be given at age 4 or older, with at least six months between the final and previous dose.
• Oral polio vaccine (OPV) doses given after April 1, 2016, don’t count toward Ohio’s school requirements. Only the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) is valid.

If you’re not sure where your child stands on vaccinations, log into MyChart or give us a call. We can pull your child’s immunization record from ImpactSIIS, Ohio’s statewide immunization registry.

What You Should Know About the 2026 Vaccine Schedule Change 

In January 2026, the CDC changed its childhood vaccine recommendations for the first time in more than 30 years. 

Six vaccines that were previously recommended for all children moved to a “shared decision-making” category. 

This means they’re now recommended only when doctors and families decide together, or for high-risk children. 

The vaccines that moved to this category include:

• RSV
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Meningococcus
• Rotavirus
• The flu vaccine

Here’s what this does NOT change for your kindergartner: Hepatitis B remains on Ohio’s state-required list for school entry regardless of the CDC’s new category. Ohio law sets minimum immunization standards independently of CDC guidance, and Ohio hasn’t changed those requirements. Your child still needs all the vaccines listed above to enter kindergarten.

Here’s where COPC stands: COPC’s pediatricians, along with 12 major health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, continue to follow the original schedule recommending all 17 vaccines for all children. That includes the six vaccines the CDC moved to shared decision-making. All of these vaccines remain available at COPC and are still fully covered by insurance, including private plans, Medicaid, CHIP, and the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. Our mission is to be the best for our patients and the best for primary care. In order to achieve that goal, I believe it is important to vaccinate our most vulnerable population against these harmful and potentially fatal diseases.

“Vaccines, like seatbelts, save lives. We need to protect our children so they can live, learn and become the best version of themselves in this world.” – COPC pediatricians.

Read more about COPC’s stance on vaccines here.

 

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Why These 5 Vaccine Series Are on Ohio’s Required List 

We often get asked by parents: why are these five vaccines (DTaP, Polio, MMR, Hepatitis B and Varicella required and not others? 

In short, these five required vaccine series protect against diseases that spread quickly in school settings, especially among children who have never been exposed. Each of these series has a specific schedule that should be completed before your child is considered fully immunized.

Let’s break them down further, starting with DTaP. r child is considered fully immunized”.

• DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis)

You’ve likely heard of Pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, since it’s highly contagious and can be severe enough to send young children to the hospital.

COPC physicians have cared for newborns who became critically ill with Pertussis, including infants who required hospitalization and even life support after contracting the disease from a parent.

This shows how quickly and seriously Pertussis can move in infants. It’s not something to take lightly.

In the past, Diphtheria was one of the leading causes of childhood death. Today, it’s rare in the U.S. primarily because of vaccination. 

Tetanus doesn’t spread person-to-person, but it enters through cuts and wounds and can be deadly, which reinforces how vital it is to receive the DTaP vaccine. 

• Polio (IPV)

Polio was essentially eliminated in the U.S. in 1979 through vaccination, but it hasn’t been eradicated globally, and imported cases remain a real risk. 

In 2022, an unvaccinated adult in Rockland County, New York, became the first U.S. polio case in nearly a decade. The virus was later detected in local wastewater, suggesting it had been circulating undetected. This is one of the reasons why Ohio still requires it for school entry.