In 1977, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Secretary of the Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare (later Health and Human Services) launched the National Childhood Immunization Initiative with a goal of achieving 90% vaccination levels among all children.

The Initiative mobilized the public as well as the private sectors with extensive involvement by volunteers and voluntary organizations, including a major public information and education campaign. More than 28 million individual immunization records of school children were reviewed to identify children in need of vaccinations and to refer them for these vaccinations.

A major increase in federal support for immunization grant programs helped to eliminate the backlog of unimmunized and incompletely immunized children and to create systems to maintain high levels of immunization. The results of the Childhood Immunization Initiative are reflected in the following: 1) Immunization levels of children entering school for the first time in the fall of 1980 were 96% for measles, rubella, and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP); 95% for poliomyelitis; and 92% for mumps.