In October 2017, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) approved the Recommended Immunization Schedule for Children and Adolescents Aged 18 Years or Younger—United States, 2018. The 2018 child and adolescent immunization schedule summarizes ACIP recommendations, including several changes from the 2017 immunization schedules, in three figures and footnotes to the figures. These documents can be found on the CDC immunization schedule website (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/index.html).

These immunization schedules are approved by ACIP (https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/index.html), the American Academy of Pediatrics (https://www.aap.org), the American Academy of Family Physicians (https://www.aafp.org), and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (https://www.acog.org). Health-care providers are advised to use the figures and the footnotes together. The full ACIP recommendations for each vaccine, including contraindications and precautions, can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-recs/index.html.

Providers should be aware that changes in recommendations for specific vaccines can occur between annual updates to the childhood/adolescent immunization schedules. If errors or omissions are discovered within the child and adolescent schedule, CDC posts revised versions on the CDC immunization schedule website.

Printable versions of the 2018 immunization schedules for children and adolescents aged 18 years or younger and ordering instructions for laminated versions and easy-to-read versions for parents also are available at the immunization schedule website.

For further guidance on the use of each vaccine included in the schedules, including contraindications and precautions, health-care providers are referred to the respective ACIP vaccine recommendations.