School Board President John DeRuyter said he is not concerned about a new federal executive order directing agencies to challenge vaccine exemptions, though the school board policy committee will likely review requirements if the federal rules change.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month, aimed at overhauling federal childhood vaccine recommendations. The directive instructs federal health officials to develop plans within 90 days to space out routine shots, separate combination vaccines such as the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into individual doses, and challenge state laws restricting exemptions.

Any changes resulting from the order will not be immediate.

Schools Superintendent Joshua Garrett said he has no comment at this time, citing a need for more information about the executive order and its potential effect on school policies.

DeRuyter, who also serves on the school board policy committee, said the district is already in line with the exemption provisions of the federal directive.

“Currently, our district honors all religious and medical exemptions for vaccinations,” DeRuyter said. “That isn’t something for us to worry about. But the policy committee will probably need to look at the requirements for the scheduled combination vaccinations being spread out.”

State law and Wrangell school district policy require children to be fully immunized before entering a classroom, unless parents submit signed annual paperwork requesting an exemption on medical or religious grounds.

According to figures published in the Sentinel in March, 76% of kindergarten through sixth grade students at Evergreen Elementary were fully vaccinated, Principal Cathy Winn said. At that time, 13% of students in K-6 had approved religious exemptions, with the rest missing a required dose or their updated records had not yet reached the school.

Statewide health figures show Southeast tracking closely with or slightly ahead of broader Alaska averages for younger children.

According to the first-quarter 2026 report from the Alaska Department of Health, 55% of children aged 19 to 35 months in Southeast had completed the full primary childhood series against seven diseases, matching the statewide average of 55%. Anchorage recorded the highest rate in that age bracket at 61%, while the Interior trailed at 48%. 

Nationwide, Alaska continues to rank near the bottom in childhood immunization coverage. An analysis by the nonprofit news organization Stateline of federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed Alaska’s kindergarten entry vaccination rate of 82.7% ranked second-lowest among 48 reporting states for the 2024–25 school year, while CDC records showed non-medical exemptions across Alaska rose from 6.6% in 2018–19 to 9% in 2024–25.