sample religious exemption letter for vaccines massachusetts

A spokesperson, Laura White, said the school is not anti-vaccine and parents make their own decisions. More than 21 percent of kindergartners there got a medical or religious exemption last year. For example, the private Waldorf School of Lexington has the highest exemption rate in Massachusetts. Parents who don’t vaccinate their kids tend to cluster. If they can make a convincing argument that isn't true, we have a policy that encourages people to buy in.' 'Basically, we have a policy that lets people get out of vaccinating even if their reasons aren't religious. 'What ends up happening is that benefits people who are either better liars or have access to legal counsel,' she said. Reiss also said there's no good way for states to determine the sincerity of religious beliefs. It's okay to enforce a general law across the board.' 'If it's a general law, neutral on its face, you don't have to give a religious exemption. “You don't have to exempt people from taxes if they have a religious objection to paying taxes, and you don't have to exempt them from school vaccine mandates if they have a religious objection,' Reiss said. California, Mississippi and West Virginia also only have the medical exemption. Maine recently banned religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions. 'īut Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Hastings and an expert on vaccine policy, says Vargas' bill is legally sound. 'Every child deserves a public education without discrimiation on the basis of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or disabilty. ' has achieved one of the highest rates of vaccination in the country without coercive means and exceeds the levels for herd immunity,' Health Choice Massachusetts said in a written statement. Opponents to Vargas’ bill, like the advocacy group Health Choice Massachusetts, suggest that getting rid of the religious exemption might violate civil liberties. 'Lots of parents point to things like breastfeeding or high quality foods, including organic foods, or natural remedies, as superior to vaccines and superior to other kinds of pharmaceutical interventions, because they feel true to this larger conversation about, what does it mean to be healthy, and what does it mean to support health?' also allows parents to question whether vaccines are part of that,” she said. 'That same conversation about chemicals, about toxins, about artificial products, about pesticides. They’re also more likely to favor organic food. Reich has found that the parents who are most likely to reject vaccines are white, college-educated and wealthy. 'We've treated vaccines as a kind of personal consumption product and not really part of public health systems that are really geared towards protecting everyone in the community - not just your own children.” over the last 20 years of insisting that parents are solely responsible for their own children,' Reich said. “We've really set up a culture in the U.S. According to her research, other factors are behind vaccine refusal.

Jennifer Reich, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado in Denver, said many parents who take religious exemptions for the children aren’t actually religious. “When you look at all the major world religions, none of them have denounced vaccines - in fact, even the Catholic Church has told people, 'Hey, vaccinate your kids, this is important,'' Vargas said. Andy Vargas of Haverhill has filed a bill to eliminate it.

The state's religious exemption faces a challenge in the legislature, where Rep. The percentage of kindergartners taking religious exemptions reached an all-time high for the 2018-2019 school year, according to Massachusetts Department of Public Health data going back to 1987-1988. More than 80 percent of the 920 Massachusetts kindergartners excused from vaccines last year received religious exemptions.

To get a religious exemption, all a parent or guardian has to do is state 'in writing that vaccination or immunization conflicts with his sincere religious beliefs,' according to state law. The other is a religious exemption, which allows parents to refuse vaccines in line with religious beliefs.

One is a medical exemption for children who face health risks like allergic reactions, which requires documentation from a physician. In Massachusetts, parents can seek two paths to avoid vaccinating their kids.

Sample religious exemption letter for vaccines massachusetts