PORTLAND, Ore. — As kids across the Portland metro prepare to return to school, experts have noticed a large drop in vaccination rates among Oregon’s youngest learners in recent years.

Over the past decade, vaccination rates among Oregon kindergartners have fallen and non-medical vaccine exemptions have gone up, the Oregon Immunization Program found .

Last school year, nearly 10% of Oregon kindergartners had a non-medical exemption for a school-required vaccine. That’s a big uptick from 2015, when under six percent of kindergartners had a vaccine exemption.

The fall in vaccine rates is leading to more outbreaks, experts said.

"We've had the worst measles outbreak that the U.S. has experienced in more than 30 years. Measles is a very highly infectious disease," said Candace DeMatteis,

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