evidence: - Unimmunized or partially immunized homeless children and children in foster care cannot be denied entry to public schools if they do not have immunization records. The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (which makes the McKinney-Vento Act more comprehensive) states that if a homeless or foster care child or youth arrives lacking immunizations or medical records, the parent/guardian should be referred to the district's Homeless Education Liaison/foster care point of contact, who has the responsibility to obtain relevant academic records and immunizations or medical records and to ensure that homeless/foster care students are attending school while the records are obtained. The student must be enrolled and permitted to attend public school in the interim. For questions about the Every Student Succeeds Act, please contact the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), at (781) 338-3700 or compliance@doe.mass.edu. [...] Many students have an exemption to only one or two vaccines and are otherwise immunized. Beginning in 2015, our survey collected numbers of students with an exemption that have no documented vaccines on file. This shows the number of students that have an exemption to all vaccines and are likely unimmunized. This number is much lower than the total with an exemption or two. The regional clustering of students with no documented vaccines is similar to that of students with an exemption to one or more vaccines. Students that are completely unimmunized pose a greater risk to the community because they are unprotected from multiple infectious diseases.