Vaccination rates for Michigan schoolchildren are inching up, according to new state data, but the numbers remain worrisome for public-health officials.

In all, 92 percent of all Michigan kindergartners were fully vaccinated in fall 2014, compared to 91.9 percent in fall 2013.

"We've definitely focused our efforts in the last few years on educating our communities about the values of vaccines," said Jennifer Smith, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Community Health, which reported the data.

State officials have been particularly concerned about Michigan's vaccine waiver rate for school children whose parents opted them out of immunizations for preventable and highly contagious diseases such as measles and whooping cough.

The kindergarten waiver rate remains well above the national average, although the new data shows the rate is coming down.

About 5.2 percent of Michigan's kindergartners had vaccination waivers in fall 2014 compared to 5.8 percent in fall 2013, the data shows.

"Any time waiver rates go down, we're encouraged by that," Smith said.

The data released by the state was collected from schools, which are required to check immunization records for kindergartners, seventh-graders and any new students entering its school system. The deadline for schools to submit reports to the state was Feb. 1.

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The statewide numbers are considered "provisional" because a few schools have not yet submitted a report, Smith said. The state also is following up with schools with low compliance rates.

MLive.com published in December an investigation of vaccination rates in Michigan and found that the state has among the highest rate of waivers for required childhood vaccines, which experts say is putting the public at risk for outbreaks of some vaccine-preventable illnesses. Read the entire series here.

Vaccination rates are significantly lower for Michigan's private school population, where students are twice as likely to have vaccine waivers, according to the new state figures.

The new figures show that, on average, 86 percent of private-school kindergartners were fully vaccinated in fall 2014, 10 percent had waivers and the other 4 percent did not supply immunization records, or are in the process but have not completed getting required vaccines.

Michigan children entering kindergarten must show proof of immunization for measles, pertussis, polio, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, chicken pox, diphtheria and tetanus -- unless a parent signs a waiver.

By seventh grade, students must be immunized against meningococcal and receive a DTP or DTaP booster for diptheria, tetanus and pertussis. Those vaccines also can be waived by parents.

Michigan is one of 20 states that allows parents to obtain a waiver for reasons beyond religious or medical concerns. These are classified as "philosophical" waivers, which in fall 2014 comprised 71 percent of all waivers.

The national median waiver rate for kindergartners was 1.8 percent for fall 2013, the latest data available, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Michigan had the fourth-highest rate in the country behind Oregon, Idaho and Vermont.

Federal and state officials are concerned about vaccine waivers because outbreaks of diseases are more likely to occur in communities with clusters of unvaccinated children or adults.

Such clusters exist in a third of Michigan public and private schools housing kindergartners, according the 2014 data shows.

In total, about 700 Michigan elementaries have kindergarten waiver rates above 7 percent, the benchmark above which health officials say communities are at risk of an outbreak of whooping cough or measles, the most contagious vaccine-preventable diseases.

Many of those buildings are in affluent and well-educated communities, such as Birmingham, Bloomfield, Rochester and Grosse Pointe.

Kindergarten waiver rates average above 7 percent in 15 counties, including Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw and Livingston.

Oakland County saw its kindergarten waiver rate drop from 10.1 percent to 8.3 percent.

"That's encouraging, but still far from where we want it to be," said Shane Bies, administrator of public health nursing services at the Oakland County Health Department. "It's still well above the state average, well above the national average."

One county that saw a drop in waivers was Grand Traverse, which experienced an outbreak of pertussis -- also known as whooping cough -- this past fall, followed by an outbreak of measles.

The media attention around the dozens of pertussis cases led to an uptick in vaccinations, health officials said at the time.

The attention also appeared to significantly reduce vaccine waivers.

For fall 2013, Grand Traverse County had a kindergarten waiver rate of 12.8 percent, one of the highest in the state. For fall 2014, that dropped to 9.8 percent.

In neighboring Leelanau County, which also experienced pertussis and measles cases, the kindergarten waiver rate dropped from 19.5 to 12.3 percent.

The state also reported vaccination rates for seventh-graders and students who transferred to a new school system, the two other groups where immunization records are checked.

The rates for transfer students dropped from 5.6 percent to 4.4 percent between fall 2013 and fall 2014.

This was the first year that seventh-graders were checked. The state previously looked at sixth graders.

"The change was made to help alleviate some challenges caused by trying to vaccinate 11-year-old students by the time they enter 6th grade," the state said in an analysis accompanying the data. "The reporting of 7th grade students also fits better with the nationally recommended immunization schedule."

In fall 2014, 4.8 percent of Michigan seventh-graders waived the vaccine requirements compared to 7.8 percent of sixth-graders in fall 2013.

State and local health officials anticipate waiver rates likely will drop more going forward as the result of a state rule change that went into effect in January.

In the past, Michigan parents could waive vaccines by simply signing a paper that said they had a philosophical opposition to vaccines.

Health officials have suspected the situation led to waivers being obtained simply for convenience because parents who weren't able to get a child fully immunized could simply opt out of the mandate by signing a paper at school.

While Michigan parents still have the right to refuse the required shots for their children, now they have to get the paperwork at their county health department and sit through an education session by a local health worker about vaccines and the diseases they are intended to prevent.

Parents also have to use the universal state form that includes a statement of acknowledgement that parents understand they may be putting their own children and others at risk by refusing the shots.

Smith said she anticipated the rule will result in further declines in the waiver rate.

"We've seen positive results from counties that adopted that rule change prior to it going statewide," she said. "We're hopeful" it will bring down waiver rates more.

Bies said he sees the rule change as helpful.

"We appreciate the opportunity to have the conversation with parents and at least lay some groundwork" about the value of vaccines, he said.

'"We really think the rule change will have a positive impact on vaccination rates, although we don't know how much," he said.

It should also make a difference for parents who were obtaining a waiver more for convenience than a "strongly held belief," he said. "There definitely is a lot of that, although we don't know how much."

Julie Mack is a reporter for Kalamazoo Gazette. Email her at jmack1@mlive.com, call her at 269-350-0277 or follow her on Twitter @kzjuliemack.