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A reader pointed out to us earlier this week that national reports from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on kindergarten vaccination rates have shown what they considered a
conspicuous omission over the past three years — a complete absence of data for the state of Montana. Finding their curiosity infectious, we dug in.
We confirmed that, since shortly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Montana has been the only state in the country not to provide federal health officials with aggregated data about the childhood immunizations required of public school students and the exemptions granted to families in certain circumstances. For more than two decades, such data has allowed the CDC and others to inform the public about statewide vaccination rates among kindergarteners for contagious diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough. It also allows the agency to track long-term trends
including a nearly 3% nationwide decline in MMR vaccination since 2019.
Montana’s contribution to that data ended in 2021 as a result of a new law broadening the ability of individuals to secure exemptions to vaccine requirements. While public schools are still required to obtain vaccination or exemption information from incoming students, Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services spokesperson Jon Ebelt said his agency no longer collects that data from schools as that year’s House Bill 334 struck its mandate to do so from the state’s codebook. Ebelt added that DPHHS was unable to complete its school immunization report for the 2019-20 school year due to COVID-related issues, meaning the last full year of Montana data was 2018-19.
Rep. Ed Stafman, D-Bozeman, introduced a measure reinstating the data reporting requirement during the 2023 legislative session, telling members of a House committee that HB 334’s original sponsor — Rep. Jennifer Carlson,
R-Manhattan — had informed him the change was an unintended consequence of her bill’s passage.
“We have a public health emergency, a disaster on our hands, without that data,” Stafman said at the time. “If and when an epidemic breaks out, we don’t have the tools to deal with it.”
Stafman’s proposal failed to make it out of committee, meaning Montana remains the only state absent from the national data.
Public health officials have repeatedly said they rely on K-12 vaccination data to understand how vulnerable communities are to the spread of certain diseases. Sophia Newcomer, a vaccination researcher and associate director at the University of Montana’s Center for Population Health Research, told MTFP that kindergarten vaccination data can help tell health care workers where to focus their efforts if, for example, cases of whooping cough begin to rise in a neighboring state. Without it, Newcomer said, Montana is “flying blind” in the face of potential outbreaks.
Newcomer, a mother with school-aged kids, said it’s also important for parents to have information about how many of their kids’ peers are vaccinated. That’s especially true for parents with children who have underlying medical conditions, she said, such as a child undergoing chemotherapy. She added that even children with healthy immune systems can carry diseases like whooping cough home to more vulnerable groups, such as grandparents and infant siblings.
“If we don’t know what vaccination rates are in schools — if we’re not even looking at it — we’re not ready for when we see measles outbreaks occurring in neighboring states,” Newcomer said. “Without knowing what is our level of protection at a community level, what is our level of protection in schools, we’re not ready to respond at that community level.”
A list of bills requested in advance of the 2025 legislative session indicates Stafman is planning to take another run at his effort to require that Montana once again report state-level data on student immunization and exemption rates.
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Alex Sakariassen
Reporter
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“I’m about to get the f— out of here. Ask somebody else.”
—Montana U.S. Sen Jon Tester, as quoted by NBC News reporter Sahil Kapur, responding to questions from national reporters in Washington, D.C., about President Joe Biden’s pardon of Biden’s son Hunter. Tester, a Democrat who lost his re-election bid against Republican Tim Sheehy last month, is leaving office in early January. Kapur also reported that Tester’s comment was delivered
“with a wide smile.”
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Closeup 📸
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Indigenous artist and Helena resident Rachel Twoteeth Pichardo, left, and high school student Jazmine Buffalo, right, examine an organ freshly harvested from a bison. Credit: Karen Ogden / Helena Public Schools
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Last month, the Helena School District rounded up a group of nearly 40 high schoolers from Helena and Capital High Schools to travel to Cascade County and participate in a bison harvest. The harvest, which took place at the Big Sky Bison Ranch in Vaughn, marked a first for the district's students, giving them an opportunity to learn about the history of the animal and its connection to Indigenous cultures.
READ MORE: Helena students participate in the district’s first bison harvest.
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On Wednesday, attorneys, public officials, advocates for transgender youth and other interested parties tuned into U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments over the future of a Tennessee law that prohibits some medical treatment for transgender minors.
The case, United States v. Skrmetti, is one of the most prominent legal conflicts about transgender rights taken up by the high court in recent years. It comes after multiple states, Montana included, have passed similar laws aimed at restricting medical care for trans minors’ gender dysphoria.
Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte filed a “friend of the court” brief in the Skrmetti case in October, urging the court to allow the Tennessee law to stand. A spokesperson for the governor recirculated that filing after oral arguments concluded Wednesday, emphasizing the state of Montana’s official alignment with the Tennessee statute.
“Children who struggle with gender identity deserve love, compassion, and respect. They deserve no ridicule, animus, or seclusion. They are entitled to protection, not exploitation,” Gianforte’s lead attorney wrote in the brief. “While their young minds and bodies are still developing, they should not be subjected to experimental and permanent, life-altering medical and surgical procedures.”
Another Montanan monitoring the arguments unfolding in Washington, D.C., was Alex Rate, an attorney with the ACLU of Montana who is involved with a legal challenge against Montana’s version of the Tennessee law, 2023’s Senate Bill 99. The Montana lawsuit, Cross v. State, was previously titled Van Garderen v. State, but has been renamed since one of the lead plaintiffs turned 18.
Rate is well aware of the similarities between the Montana and Tennessee laws — he cast both states as infringing on trans peoples’ constitutional rights and relying on “junk science” to justify their statutes. But he said the fate of the Skrmetti decisions won’t necessarily have any bearing on Cross v. State.
A state judge temporarily blocked the Montana law in September 2023. Since then, Rate said he and others involved with the lawsuit have been waiting to see whether the Montana Supreme Court will uphold that injunction or allow the law to take effect while litigation continues in a district court in Missoula. The case is slated for trial there next summer.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s eventual ruling in Skrmetti isn’t expected until next spring or summer. Depending on how justices on the national high court rule, Rate said, it’s possible the U.S. Supreme Court will allow the Tennessee law to stand while Montana courts deem SB 99 unconstitutional.
“There’s one case after the other, from the state of Montana, that says that we’re not going to march to the drumbeat of the federal courts and interpretations of the federal constitution,” Rate said, pointing to how Montana courts have maintained abortion protections even as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The arguments in the Cross case, Rate said, are “exclusively based on state law claims,” highlighting equal protection and privacy provisions in the Montana Constitution. That makes them “very different than the federal counterpart,” he said.
Despite the differing legal contexts, the content of the two cases is largely similar. Both deal with medications prescribed to youth to either delay puberty or change their gender presentation. Those treatments can also be available for cisgender youth with different medical diagnoses — Montana’s law would prohibit the treatments only when meant to address gender dysphoria.
Staff attorneys from the Montana attorney general’s office have been vigorously defending SB 99’s constitutionality, arguing that the state is operating well within its duty to protect minors.
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By the Numbers 🔢
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Number of acres in north-central Montana that American Prairie, formerly American Prairie Reserve, controls following its acquisition of a Phillips County property announced this week. That figure includes 386,516 acres of leased land as well as 140,552 acres the organization owns outright
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American Prairie's recent acquisition of a large property in Phillips County will allow it to expand Mars Vista, an existing unit of land south of the Little Rocky Mountains. Credit: Courtesy American Prairie
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The new purchase, bringing American Prairie’s holdings to more than half a million acres for the first time, was the second-largest in the organization’s history, it says. American Prairie, a 23-year-old nonprofit, was founded to create one of the largest nature reserves in the country.
The 2,557 deeded acres and 49,174 acres of leased public land American Prairie acquired are located between the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. In a Wednesday press release, American Prairie said details regarding recreational public access to it will be forthcoming.
Beth Saboe, American Prairie’s senior public relations manager, told MTFP on Thursday that the organization's total acreage figure includes Bureau of Land Management grazing leases that are the subject of a dispute pending before the Interior Department Board of Land Appeals.
The leasing dispute dates to 2022, when the state of Montana, the Montana Department of Justice and the Montana Stockgrowers Association protested the BLM’s decision to authorize bison grazing on 63,000 acres of its land in Phillips County. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen argued that the decision represented “another step toward displacing northeast Montana’s livestock industry and
replacing it with a large outdoor zoo.”
American Prairie CEO Alison Fox highlighted the new purchase’s ability to further the organization’s conservation goals.
“This is outstanding habitat for wildlife and we’re thrilled at the prospect of helping to provide safe passage for more animals between areas that are already federally protected,” Fox said.
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On Our Radar 
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Alex — I’ve always had a soft spot for local bookshops, a product of the countless childhood hours I spent browsing — and eventually stocking — the shelves in my family’s independent
bookstore in Bismarck. So it was a special treat this week to catch a Flathead Beacon piece profiling two dedicated Kalispell-area booksellers and their longstanding devotion to helping people read.
JoVonne — I had the chance to watch “Wicked” over the Thanksgiving holiday with my parents. It’s safe to say I’m a fan — and I’m not alone, with the film topping the box office charts over its opening weekend with a gross of over $160 million worldwide, according to Deadline.
Jacob — After a suspected Chinese cyberattack on eight U.S. telecom providers, including Verizon and AT&T, an unnamed official from the FBI urged the use of encrypted communication during a press call. That’s a surprising stance given the agency’s previous opposition to encryption technology that can stymie its investigations.
Tom — I’m on the hunt for a good roux, that mixture of flour, oil and minced vegetables that thickens cajun cuisine, in this case a beer-brined fried chicken and andouille sausage gumbo that I’ve been perfecting for years. The trick is cooking the roux down to a dark, brick red without burning it. For things like this, I turn to the late Paul Prudhomme, whose wisdom is still available on
YouTube.
Zeke — With conversations about Spotify Wrapped inundating my social media feeds, I began to wonder about our country’s musical portfolio for 2024. This USA Today article provides detail on what Americans have listened to on Spotify’s audio streaming service over the last 12 months. Among the most popular podcasts: "The Joe Rogan Experience," "The Tucker Carlson Show," and “The Daily” podcast produced by the New York Times.
Mara — The best season of the year is officially here: the season of Extravagant Cookie Baking. I’ve been eyeing the dazzling and delicious creations proposed by the New York Times Cooking section for a few days. Without being able to pick which recipe looks best, I think the safest route is to simply make them all.
Eric — President Joe Biden’s national TikTok ban is one step closer to withstanding judicial scrutiny following a Friday ruling where it was upheld by a U.S. federal appeals court. The legal challenge against the ban, which requires TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance to sell or shut down the widely used social media platform, will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. A similar Montana law championed by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen remains stalled elsewhere in the federal court system.
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