FRESNO, Calif. (KMJ) — More than 97,000 students in California public schools have been diagnosed with autism.
The latest statistics from the CA Department of Education show that the figure has risen seven-fold, in the past 15 years.
The increase is most prominent among kindergartners, in whom autism cases climbed by 17 percent last year.
More than 1 in 65 California kindergartners are classified as autistic.
Some parents believe that vaccines are to blame, although many in the medical community say there no evidence that autism is linked to vaccines.
A recently-implemented state law eliminates so-called personal belief exemptions for vaccines, allowing only medical waivers.
