Oregon's measles case count hit 45 on Wednesday, Aug. 12, surpassing the state's full-year 2024 peak of 31 cases, and the virus has been circulating in Washington County wastewater since Aug. 1. Beaverton School District families have 12 days before the Aug. 25 first day of school to check whether their children's vaccinations are current.

Only 85.6% of Oregon kindergarteners were fully vaccinated in the 2025-26 school year, according to the Oregon Health Authority. That falls well below the 93% threshold doctors say is needed to prevent measles outbreaks. More than one in three Oregon schools report MMR vaccination rates under that line.

"It is more than likely that come this fall, we will officially lose our measles elimination status as a country," state health officer and epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said Thursday, Aug. 13, as reported by the Beaverton Valley Times.

The United States declared measles eliminated in 2000.

Federal authorities are scheduled to review that status in November.

What Bethany-area families should know

Oregon law requires two doses of the measles vaccine for kindergarten entry, though parents can obtain medical or nonmedical exemptions. Nonmedical exemptions reached a record 10.9% statewide in 2025-26, up from 6.9% in the 2021-22 school year.

Parents can look up vaccination rates for Westview, Sunset, Mountainside or any other school on OHA's School Immunization Data dashboard. The agency warns that county-level averages can mask pockets of low coverage at individual campuses.

Dr. Howard Chiou, OHA's medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations, said in May that parents "should not assume their local schools will also be well protected" and urged families to check their own school's data.

Strained public health response

Local health departments across the Portland metro have lost funding since federal COVID-19 dollars expired, and OHA has scaled back its measles investigation guidelines to reduce the burden on county teams. Multnomah County spokesperson Dennis Theriault said the shift is significant: "Traditionally, a measles case was an immediate emergency. With the sustained increase in cases and reduced funding for public health, we do not have the resources to respond in the same way."

Nationally, the CDC reported 2,465 confirmed measles cases as of Aug. 6, nearly 200 more than in all of 2025. Almost half occurred in people ages 5 to 19.

Any unvaccinated student exposed to measles must stay out of school, childcare or healthcare settings for 21 days under Oregon law. One dose of the vaccine provides 95% protection; a second dose raises that to 97% for life.

As we reported July 25, a measles exposure near Westview High School earlier this summer already put local families on alert. BSD's first day is Tuesday, Aug. 25.