What is your state immunization registry — and why it's not the whole picture.
Every person gets one health story, and one private Family Stork email address every clinic already knows how to use. Tired of managing health records for yourself and everyone you love? Family Stork organizes them for you automatically.
November 8, 2026
The school sends a note home: We need your child's immunization records. You don't have the paper card. You can't find the portal login. You vaguely remember the pediatrician mentioning a state registry. But what is it, how do you get in, and — once you do — is that actually everything the school needs?
Here's the short version: your state immunization registry is a powerful tool for vaccine records specifically. But it tracks vaccines and only vaccines. Your child's health story is much bigger than that.
Every state has one — it's called an IIS
An Immunization Information System (IIS) is a confidential, population-based database that records vaccine doses administered by healthcare providers in a given state or territory. The CDC supports IIS programs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several territories. When your pediatrician gives your child a vaccine, the dose is reported to the state IIS — usually automatically through the clinic's electronic health record system.
Some states call it a registry. Others give it a name:
- California: CAIR2 (California Immunization Registry)
- Texas: ImmTrac2
- New York: NYSIIS (New York State Immunization Information System) and CIR (Citywide Immunization Registry, for NYC)
- Florida: Florida SHOTS
- Ohio: Impact SIIS
- Pennsylvania: PA-SIIS (Phil-VACS for Philadelphia)
- Illinois: I-CARE (Illinois Comprehensive Automated Immunization Registry Exchange)
- Wyoming: WyIR (Wyoming Immunization Registry, accessible via the Docket app)
Every state's IIS serves the same core purpose: give schools, providers, and parents a way to verify which vaccines a child has received and which are still needed.
Source: CDC — About Immunization Information Systems, accessed November 8, 2026.
How to access your child's immunization records
Access varies by state, but here are the most common paths:
- Through your pediatrician: Ask your child's doctor to pull a printout from the state IIS. This is often the fastest route — they can do it during any office visit.
- Through your local health department: County and city health departments can look up records in the state IIS and provide official printouts.
- Online portal (some states): States like Texas (ImmTrac2), Wyoming (Docket app), and Florida (Florida SHOTS) offer parent-facing online access. You'll need to verify your identity and your child's information.
- School nurse: In many states, school nurses have read access to the IIS and can verify immunization status directly at enrollment.
If you've moved from another state, your child's old vaccine records may not be in your new state's IIS. You'll need to bring paper records, printouts, or a transfer from the previous state's registry. Your new pediatrician can then enter the records into the current state's system.
For state-by-state details, see our guides: school health form requirements for all 50 states →
What the registry tracks — and what it doesn't
Here's what a state immunization registry covers:
- ✅ Vaccine doses administered (date, type, lot number, provider)
- ✅ Immunization compliance status for school or daycare
- ✅ Catch-up schedules for missing doses
Here's what it does not track:
- ❌ Well-child visit notes and developmental screenings
- ❌ Growth charts (height, weight, BMI over time)
- ❌ Allergies and allergy action plans
- ❌ Specialist visits (ENT, allergist, orthopedics, dermatology)
- ❌ Lab results and bloodwork
- ❌ Emergency room visits and urgent care records
- ❌ Hospital discharge summaries
- ❌ Dental and vision records
- ❌ Medication history and prescriptions
- ❌ School and sports physicals
- ❌ Mental and behavioral health records
- ❌ Records from out-of-state providers (until manually transferred)
The registry answers one question well: Is my child up to date on vaccines? It cannot answer: What happened at every doctor visit my child has ever had?
That second question — the complete picture — is what schools, new pediatricians, camp nurses, and emergency rooms actually need. And it's what parents lose track of most often.
The records that fall through the cracks
Think about everything that happens between vaccine appointments:
- The allergist who diagnosed your child's peanut allergy and wrote the emergency action plan
- The urgent care visit for the broken wrist — X-rays, follow-up instructions, the cast removal
- The growth measurements your pediatrician tracks at every well-child visit
- The school physical form the clinic completed last August
- The speech therapy evaluation from three years ago that the new school is asking about
- The hospital stay when your child was two — the discharge papers you put somewhere safe
None of that is in the immunization registry. Each piece lives in a different provider's system — a different portal, a different login, a different phone number to call when you need a copy. And when you switch providers or move states, most of it doesn't follow automatically.
One email address that catches everything — not just vaccines
Family Stork gives each person in your family a private @families.familystork.com email address. Give it to your pediatrician, the allergist, the school nurse, the hospital, the lab. They send records to it — visit summaries, lab results, immunization updates, discharge papers — and the health story builds itself.
The immunization registry tracks vaccines. Family Stork tracks everything: every checkup, every specialist, every ER visit, every growth measurement, every allergy, every school form. One timeline from birth. One place to look when anyone asks for records.
Your child's state registry is a great tool for vaccine records. Use it. But your child's health story is bigger than vaccines — and it deserves a place where the whole story lives together.
$99/year, or about $10/month. Free to start. Start your family's record →
Frequently asked questions
Is the state immunization registry the same as MyChart?
No. MyChart is a patient portal run by Epic Systems — it shows records from providers that use Epic's software. Your state immunization registry is a government-run system that consolidates vaccine records from all providers in the state, regardless of which electronic health record system they use. See how Family Stork compares to MyChart →
Can I access my state's immunization registry online?
Some states offer parent-facing online access (Texas ImmTrac2, Wyoming via Docket, Florida SHOTS). Others require you to request records through your provider or local health department. Check our state-by-state guides for specifics.
What if my child's vaccines were given in a different state?
State immunization registries don't automatically share data across state lines. If you've moved, bring paper records or a printout from your previous state's registry to your new pediatrician. They can enter the doses into the new state's IIS. Guide: transferring medical records when moving states →
Does Family Stork replace the state immunization registry?
No — and it doesn't try to. The state registry is a compliance tool: it proves your child meets school and daycare vaccine requirements. Family Stork is a complete health record: vaccines plus everything else — checkups, allergies, specialists, growth charts, ER visits, school physicals. Use both. The registry for compliance, Family Stork for the whole story.