( CNN ) A Southern California day care has shut down because an infant there -- who 's too young to get vaccinated -- contracted measles , another case in the re-emergence of the disease on the West Coast . The Samohi Infant Toddler Center inside Santa Monica High School , a facility for 24 young children of students and staff members , closed Monday after it was learned that a baby under 12 months old being care for there had measles . It 's not clear when , where or how the child got the disease . Nor is there any timetable for when the center will reopen , but it 's possible that children who have been immunized against the highly contagious virus could soon go back . In addition to the baby with measles , 13 other infants who went to the day care center are being quarantined for 21 days as a safeguard . `` It 's the best thing to do to protect the babies and the community , '' Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District spokeswoman Gail Pinsker said of the closure . `` It 's a tough situation . '' For all the talk about vaccination and measles , in one respect it 's irrelevant in this case : Children should n't get the first dose until 12 through 15 months of age , with the second dose coming when they are between 4 and 6 years old , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Then again , the fact that infants are n't vaccinated makes them even more vulnerable -- especially at a time when more and more measles cases are popping up daily in Southern California . So far , this latest case has n't affected the rest of Santa Monica High School or its 3,100-plus students , beyond the three teenage mothers with children who go to the day care center . An assistant baseball coach ( who did n't teach at the school ) contracted the disease weeks ago , but he 's since returned with a clean bill of health . According to the school district , 11.5 % of all Santa Monica and Malibu students have not been immunized because their parents opted out . This is legal in California , but controversial -- with some , including medical professionals , saying that vaccinations are a safe , effective and necessary means to prevent the spread of diseases like measles . Measles starts with a fever , runny nose , cough , red eyes and sore throat . For most people , it does n't get much worse than that -- and yet one out of every 20 children with measles also contract pneumonia , and one or two out of every 1,000 children with the disease die from it , according to the CDC . While once widespread in the United States , cases dropped significantly thanks to vaccines . In 2000 , health authorities declared that measles had been eliminated in the United States , which meant it was no longer native to the United States but continued to be brought in by international travelers . But that does n't mean no one has gotten it since . Last year , the United States had its most number of measles cases -- at 644 -- since 2000 , the CDC reported on its website . And in the first month of this year alone , 102 people reportedly had come down with the disease . Measles outbreak : How bad is it ? Those cases were reported in 14 states , but the vast majority were in California . The Golden State alone had 92 new cases since December , most of those tied to an outbreak at Disneyland , according to the state 's public health department . Most of the 59 people originally affected were park employees and patrons . Those numbers are one of the reasons California has been at the epicenter of this story , but not the only one . Another has to do with vaccinations . California allows exemptions from vaccinations for medical reasons and `` personal beliefs , '' and parents have been using them . Over the last school year , 3.3 % of California kindergartners -- about 18,200 -- were allowed to skip their shots , according to the CDC . Schools are encouraged to have `` an up-to-date list of pupils with exemptions , so they can be excluded quickly if an outbreak occurs , '' the California Department of Public Health says . Opinion : Why I wo n't let unvaccinated people around my kids . CNN 's Traci Tamura , Steve Almasy and Stella Chan contributed to this report .
Santa Monica day care shuts down because a baby who goes there has measles . CDC recommends the first measles vaccine at 12 months ; the baby was too young to get it . California has been at the epicenter of the controversy over measles and vaccinations .