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Religious and Philosophical Exemptions from School Vaccine Mandates: What’s Happening in Your State?
Forty-five states and Washington, D.C., have laws accommodating religious exemptions from school vaccine requirements, while 15 states grant exemptions on the basis of personal, moral or other beliefs. Thirteen states allow exemptions on the basis of either.
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has a page listing those states that allow students to request religious or personal belief exemptions from vaccination.
The statutes specific to each state are hyperlinked.
According to the NCSL, 45 states and Washington, D.C., have laws accommodating religious exemptions, while 15 states grant exemptions on the basis of personal, moral or other beliefs.
Thirteen states — Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin — allow exemptions in both categories.
As all states technically allow medical exemptions, these are not addressed.
NCSL’s page also lists states enacting legislation from 2017-2021 to limit or remove these exemptions or impose other conditions.
For example, in 2021, Connecticut removed the religious exemption for vaccines for children through grade 12. In 2019, Maine removed exemptions for both personal and religious beliefs, and New York removed religious exemptions.
As of March 2023, 13 states — Connecticut, Kentucky, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New York, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia — had introduced bills related to non-medical exemptions in school or childcare immunization requirements.
For example, on May 18, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed HB 715 into law, which requires schools to accept all religious exemption requests and removes the Department of Health’s authority to deny “false claims.”
West Virginia had a number of bills under consideration to allow non-medical exemptions, but none passed.
In Minnesota, HF 367, currently under consideration, would allow childcare centers to require immunizations, effectively rejecting any non-medical exemptions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Recommendations and Guidelines for child immunizations can be found here.
