Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez blocked a floor vote on eliminating school vaccine mandates on April 28, halting an effort by Governor Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo to end childhood vaccination requirements in the state. This decision occurred during a special session.

Florida leaders had sought to make the state the first to drop some school vaccine mandates since summer 2025. In September 2025, DeSantis and Ladapo held a news conference at a private Christian school east of Tampa to announce their intentions to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law. During the news conference, Ladapo stated, "Who am I, as a government or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body?" He added that current school vaccine mandates were wrong and said, "Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery."

Perez expressed reservations regarding the proposal. "There is some concern here, on my behalf, about children being in school without measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox vaccines that have been working for decades," Perez said. Every state and Washington, D.C. currently requires children to obtain certain vaccinations before attending school or childcare.

The Florida Department of Health has not filed the necessary paperwork to change vaccination rules, including a statement of regulatory costs. In an April 13 email, the department stated it is "currently in the rulemaking process" and that updates would be posted in the Florida Administrative Registrar.

In December 2025, the Florida Department of Health hosted a public forum in Panama City where public comment on vaccine mandates lasted for hours. Those who favored keeping vaccine mandates slightly outnumbered those who opposed them at the forum. Marion Fesmire, a schoolteacher, shared her experiences, stating, "I've seen kids with polio. I've seen blind kids. I've seen kids die before they're even 10 years old. It's heartbreaking."

During the winter legislative session, bill SB 1756 proposed a new personal conscience exemption for school vaccines, in addition to existing religious or medical exemptions. This bill also included a permanent ban on mandates for any mRNA-based vaccines and would have allowed nonprescription sales of ivermectin. The Food and Drug Administration has determined that available clinical trial data does not demonstrate the effectiveness of ivermectin against COVID-19 in humans. The House version of SB 1756 failed to make it to committee. Florida is currently the state with the fourth-highest number of measles cases this year, with 155 reported as of June 6, 2026.