Issue Description

In addition to the mounting medical evidence demonstrating the risks of vaccinations, religious freedom and parental rights emphasize the need for parents to retain the choice of whether or not they will immunize their children.

HSLDA and the National Center for Home Education are committed to advancing parental rights in this area as we help homeschool parents who are unduly harassed by social workers, and work to keep the religious exemption to immunizations intact.

Issue Background

48 states provide for religious or conscientious/philosophical exemptions for parents who choose not to immunize their children. Seventeen states allow for conscientious parental choice exemptions: AR, AZ, CA, CO, ID, LA, ME, MI, MN, NM, ND, OH, OK, UT, VT, WA, and WI. Only Mississippi and West Virginia have no religious or philosophical exemptions. However, Mississippi does allow an automatic exemption for homeschool students. According to surveys conducted by Centers for Disease Control, states allowing for conscientious choice exemptions do not have higher rates of vaccine preventable illnesses.