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Committee hears HB364 to restore de-identified school immunization reporting to public health
Summary
Representative Melody Cunningham27s bill would allow schools to resume sending de-identified, aggregate immunization and exemption counts to the Department of Public Health and Human Services; public health and medical groups testified heavily in favor while privacy-concerned opponents urged caution.
Representative Melody Cunningham told the Senate Education Committee that House Bill 364 would restore the practice of schools submitting de-identified, aggregate immunization and exemption counts to the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS), a process that ended in 2021. Cunningham said the change would "enable Montana schools to once again submit anonymous...aggregate information on immunizations and exemptions to DPHHS," and framed it as a public-health preparedness measure.
DPHHS bureau chief Becky Wehner and infectious-disease researchers testified that aggregate school-level data are not individually identifiable and that restoring reporting would help detect vulnerabilities and inform targeted public-health responses. Wehner said bringing back the reporting "would increase the readiness of public health to assist in controlling the spread of certain diseases in the school and then maybe a community."
Supporters included pediatricians, the Montana Medical Association, school nurses, tribal health representatives, Montana Families for Vaccines, and epidemiologists who argued the data help protect medically vulnerable people and inform policy decisions.
Opponents raised privacy concerns and distrust of state data collection; some argued that reporting exemption levels at small schools could be identifying in tight-knit communities. Representative Cunningham and DPHHS staff answered questions about how the data are collected (from school enrollment records), what is included (counts of students, fully vaccinated, exempt, and conditionally enrolled), and why the data were not available after 2021 (a prior session law removed the department's explicit authority). DPHHS explained the department could accept only de-identified, aggregated counts and emphasized statutory safeguards.
The hearing included discussion about how tribal schools and Indian Health Service data interfaces would be handled; DPHHS said the department typically collects the data from the school enrollment records rather than medical providers.
Outcome: Committee heard HB364; sponsor closed in support and asked for a due pass. No committee vote during this hearing was recorded in the transcript.
