Ceftaroline fosamil has recently received US Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of acute bacterial skin/skin structure infections (SSSIs), including those caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and community-acquired bacterial pneumonia for pediatric patients ≥2 months old. We evaluated the potency and spectrum of ceftaroline and comparators when tested against community-acquired respiratory tract infection (CARTI) and SSSI pathogens from pediatric patients. A total of 3141 consecutive, unique pediatric patient isolates of clinical significance (1460 CARTI and 1681 SSSI isolates) were collected from 29 US medical centers and tested for susceptibility to ceftaroline and comparators by broth microdilution methods. The organism collection included Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 754), Haemophilus influenzae (487), S. aureus (1399), β-hemolytic streptococci (214), Enterobacteriaceae (112), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (58), Klebsiella spp. (39), Escherichia coli (26) and miscellaneous other bacteria (52). Susceptibility results were analyzed according to patient age as follows: ≤1, 2-5, 6-12 and 13-17 years old. Overall, 99%-100% of Gram-positive isolates and H. influenzae were susceptible to ceftaroline according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute clinical breakpoint criteria. Ceftaroline exhibited potent in vitro activity against bacterial pathogens from CARTI and SSSI recently (2012-2014) collected from pediatric patients in US medical centers. Ceftaroline was particularly active against methicillin-resistant S. aureus from SSSI ([minimum inhibitory concentration for 50% and 90% of isolates (MIC50/90,)] and ceftriaxone-nonsusceptible isolates of S. pneumoniae from CARTI (MIC50/90, 0.25/0.5 μg/mL; 98.3% susceptible).