DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The number of parents seeking religious exemptions to Iowa vaccination requires is still climbing despite health officials’ efforts to ease concerns about the shots. Don Callaghan with the Iowa Public Health Department told The Des Moines Register that “it’s not the trend we want to be seeing.”

A new state report says more than 6,700 Iowa schoolchildren obtained religious exemptions to vaccinations this school year, up 13 percent from the year before and more than four times the number 15 years ago. Iowa doesn’t make parents cite specific religious teachings for exemptions. The state merely requires a signed statement that immunization “conflicts with a genuine and sincere religious belief.”

About 1.3 percent of Iowa schoolchildren now have religious exemptions to vaccination, compared with a national average of 1.5 percent.