16/08/2024
School Vaccine Requirements and Options for Not Fully Vaccinated Students
Everything you need to know!
A Voice for Choice Advocacy (AVFCA) has been educating, advocating, and litigating on vaccine choice in California for nearly 10 years. Founded in 2015 in response to SB277, which eliminated Personal Belief Exemptions for K-12 school vaccine requirements, continued efforts like SB276 and SB714 made obtaining School Vaccine Medical Exemptions far more difficult in 2019.
As with the beginning of every school year, in the past few weeks AVFCA has received hundreds of emails from parents seeking to understand California's K-12 vaccine laws and to explore school options for children who are not fully vaccinated. With the launch of our new website, AVFCA put together a summary of California’s School Vaccine Requirements and options. They can be found here and are replicated below.
What vaccines are required for children to attend private or public school in California?
For children entering TK or Kindergarten:
Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis (DTaP, DTP, Tdap) — 5 doses (4 doses if last one is given after 4th birthday)
Polio (OPV or IPV) — 4 doses (3 doses if last one is given after 4th birthday)
Hepatitis B – 3 doses
Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) — 2 doses
Varicella (Chickenpox) — 2 doses
For children entering 7th grade:
Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis (DTaP, DTP, Tdap, Td) — 3 doses – one dose must be given after 7th birthday
Polio (OPV or IPV) — 3 doses
Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) — 2 doses
Varicella (Chickenpox) — 2 doses
Hepatitis B – 3 doses (Hep B is not required for 7th grade but is required for school and will be checked at 8th grade or high school)
Can you get Titer Testing in lieu of vaccination?
Titer testing measures the concentration of antibodies in the blood to determine if a person has immunity to a specific disease, either from past infections or vaccinations. If a child has adequate antibodies they should not need to be vaccinated. Currently, in California your child’s doctor would need to submit a medical exemption to the CAIR-ME system (see below for more details) showing the antibodies. CDPH sometimes accepts these, but often does not. A Voice for Choice Advocacy is currently sponsoring a lawsuit claiming that all positive titer tests records should be able to be submitted in lieu of vaccination records, without a medical exemption. More information on that lawsuit and how to support it can be found here.
What type of exemptions are there to school vaccines?
Children who have a Vaccine Medical Exemption, an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or are homeschooled with a Private School Affidavit are not required to fulfill the California school vaccine requirements.
What qualifies as a Vaccine Medical Exemption and how should it be submitted?
All Vaccine Medical Exemptions for K-12 school must be submitted into the California Immunization Registry – Medical Exemption (CAIR-ME) website, by an MD or DO licensed in California. They must meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) criteria for precautions or contraindications to vaccines.
To file a vaccine medical exemption in CAIR-ME:
- Parents create a CAIR-ME account to request an exemption.
- The child’s physician, who must not be on probation for vaccine issues, completes and submits the exemption in CAIR-ME and provides a printed copy for the parents.
- Parents give the ME to the school and will verify them in the CAIR-ME upon submission.
It is nearly impossible to find a doctor willing to submit a vaccine medical exemption into CAIR-ME due to intense scrutiny. Even if a doctor submits one, most exemptions are revoked by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) within weeks. Currently, CDPH reviews all exemptions submitted to CAIR-ME. If a medical exemption is revoked, it can be appealed within 30 days by submitting the child’s full medical records to CDPH, but appeals are often rejected because very few children meet the CDC guidelines for permanent contraindications to all vaccines.
Are Vaccine Medical Exemptions filed prior to January 1, 2021 still valid?
Yes, but they only remain valid until the earliest of:
If the child is removed from school enrollment in CA due to homeschooling or moving out of state
When the child enrolls in the next grade span (TK/K or 7th grade) – they do transfer
The expiration date specified in a temporary medical exemption
If the issuing MD or DO has ever been subject to disciplinary action from the physician’s licensing entity
These MEs cannot be uploaded into the CAIR-ME system
Is a child with an IEP required to be fully vaccinated to attend public school?
No, if your child has special needs and is in public school with an valid IEP or in a private school receiving public school IEP services, they do not need to be fully vaccinated. While the school may ask for any available vaccination records, they cannot require them to be up to date or have a medical exemption on file for any missing vaccines. The CDPH continuously incorrectly informs schools that children with an IEP must be vaccinated, and because of this many school districts are wasting money by hiring costly lawyers to argue that children with an IEP must be vaccinated or have a valid Vaccine Medical Exemption. Thanks to Educate.Advocate, an organization AVFCA collaborates with, these cases have been resolved in favor of the students. If your school insists that your child must be fully vaccinated or have a medical exemption despite their IEP, please contact AVFCA or Educate.Advocate for assistance.
Are Personal Belief Exemptions or Religious Exemptions an option?
The Personal Belief Exemption (PBE) is no longer valid for anyone, as all children who had a PBE grandfathered in 2015, have now reached the next checkpoint – either TK/Kindergarten or 7th grade - at which point they were required meet the new vaccine requirements.
California never had a standalone Religious Exemption for K-12 vaccination requirements. However, A Voice for Choice Advocacy is currently sponsoring a lawsuit which argues SB 277 goes against the US Constitution’s First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause and California law must include a Religious Exemption in the statute requiring children to get vaccines to be enrolled in public or private school. More information on that lawsuit and how to support it can be found here.
What other options are there if I do not wish to vaccinate my child any further?
Homeschooling - A pupil enrolled in a home based private school, in a public charter homeschool (with no in person learning) or in an independent study is exempt from vaccination requirements. While homeschooling is not for everyone, homeschool options have grown and changed significantly since schools were shuttered during the COVID pandemic. There are now homeschool pods and learning centers where children can homeschool in a central location.
Move to another state – but not Connecticut, Maine, New York or West Virginia as these also only allow a vaccine medical exemption. All other states either have a Personal Belief Exemption, a Religious Exemption or a Conscious belief exemption.
Are Federal Disability (ADA) Medical Exemptions valid?
In recent months, another organization has been promoting getting a federal vaccine exemption signed off by an out of state doctor stating that the student is disabled and under ADA cannot be discriminated against. The premise is that a child who cannot be vaccinated because they are allergic or have a genetic disposition against vaccination have a disability. But to be defined as disabled under federal law, your child would have to have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, at which point they would likely have an IEP. These promoted exemptions are expensive and AVFCA has yet to hear of one of them being accepted by a school in CA. Even if a school were to accept it, it is likely that the school vaccine records get audited and it would be rejected by CDPH.
Many parents have turned to us after paying a large sum for such an exemption and the school rejecting it, asking what options they have. The key reason for a school denying it is that it is written as a Vaccine Medical Exemption which per CA law must be provided by a CA licensed MD or DO and must be submitted to the CAIR-ME system.
We appreciate the work A Voice for Choice Advocacy does for the state of California. For further information or to help them advocate, click here.
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