Six years after eliminating religious vaccination exemptions and making it possible for schools to reject valid medical exemptions, New York is cracking down on medical exemptions.
Parents and medical freedom advocates, who say the state’s actions place vulnerable children at risk of further vaccine injury, are calling on state lawmakers to pass legislation that would simplify the medical exemption process.
John Gilmore, executive director of the Autism Action Network, accused the state of “trying to get rid of” the existing exemptions. “They’re really stepping it up right now,” Gilmore said. “People who have had exemptions for 10 years or longer are arbitrarily having their exemptions denied.”
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that between the 2018-19 and 2023-24 school years, the number of medical exemptions granted to students in New York dropped to almost zero.
Senate Bill S686, also known as the Education for All Act, pending before the New York State Legislature, seeks to remedy this. According to Sen. Monica R. Martinez (D), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, the bill aims to “standardize the medical exemption form for school-required immunizations across New York State.”
The bill would direct “all school districts to accept a credible medical exemption form when completed by a licensed medical professional, ensuring that students who are medically unable to receive certain vaccinations are not excluded from the classroom,” Martinez said.
New York DOH ‘has gone completely rogue’
The proposed legislation would address cases like that of Sarah Doe, who was obliged to get 18 doses of childhood vaccines in 2019, after the state repealed religious exemptions.
Sarah developed a series of severe complications, including von Willebrand disease — a blood-clotting disorder, kidney issues and several autoimmune conditions.
Yet, Sarah’s school won’t allow her to return to class unless she receives the hepatitis B vaccine, against the advice of her treating physicians, who say Sarah is at risk of serious injury if she gets any more vaccines.
Sarah’s family is suing the Oceanside Union Free School District in federal court with the support of Children’s Health Defense (CHD). The case has garnered national media attention, including a recent story in The Daily Wire.
Attorney Sujata Gibson, who represents Sarah’s family in the lawsuit, said the problem in New York has grown worse since 2019, as the 2019 regulations “dramatically undercut and narrowed” the medical exemption from childhood vaccines under the state law.
Gibson said that under New York law, if a child submits a certification from a New York state licensed physician stating the child may be at risk of harm from a vaccine, that child is exempt from that vaccine. However, the 2019 regulations “attempt to predefine” what constitutes harm.
The standard used by the state to determine what may cause harm consists of a narrow list of “contraindications” or precautions in the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices guidelines. This leads to “widespread denials of exemptions,” Gibson said.
According to Michael Kane, founder of Teachers for Choice, the CDC guidelines were never intended to serve as the guidelines for medical exemptions.
Gilmore said the New York State Department of Health (DOH) “has gone completely rogue on this, with the intention of making sure no unvaccinated kids are in school.”
Gibson alleges the regulations have “empowered school principals and superintendents to overrule the treating physician’s determination if they don’t feel that the physician was right,” even though school administrators have no competence in that area.
This happens even though New York law “is actually plain and clear that a physician will write a medical exemption for a child who deserves it, and has the final say,” Kane said. School officials “don’t have any authority to do that.”
Parents whose medical exemption requests for their children are rejected risk being investigated by Child Protective Services if their children don’t return to school within 14 days, “even though the school is excluding the child and has final decision-making authority on that issue,” Gibson said.
Doctors are also increasingly reluctant to recommend medical exemptions, under pressure from the DOH, Gilmore said. “Their licenses are threatened, they’re threatened with professional retribution. So they’re very reticent to do it.”
The DOH did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Bill would ‘restore some hope in children’s lives’
If passed, the Education for All Act, pending before the Senate’s Education Committee, would simplify the medical exemption process. Rep. Jaime Williams (D), one of the bill’s co-sponsors in the State Assembly, said it would “restore some hope in children’s lives.”
“They can go back to school and get their lives back in order,” Williams said.
Martinez said the bill addresses challenges that emerged after New York repealed religious exemptions. “While that action helped address gaps in public health policy, it also led to confusion and inconsistent practices around medical exemptions,” including the rejection of valid medical exemptions.
Martinez said the pending legislation “addresses that issue by creating a uniform process for reviewing and accepting medical exemptions,” using a standardized form.
Gilmore said medical freedom activists in New York “deliberately” worked to get the bill introduced by Democrat legislators to overcome partisan divisions. Bipartisan support is significant, as many school administrators have associated vaccine exemption requests with Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) and President Donald Trump, leading them to “crack down harder as a result,” Gibson said.
“Every democratic legislator we’ve met with on this issue says they agree that the medical exemption system is broken in New York,” Gibson said.
Williams explained that her decision to co-sponsor the bill was “a bit personal,” recounting her own experience being told by her children’s school that they were required to get the HPV vaccine, even though that was not the case. Williams said a social worker subsequently reported her for “neglecting” her children’s health.
“I could never, ever forget that day because it really hurt,” Williams said. “When that bill came about, I felt like, ‘I understand how these parents feel. Why should it be mandatory for them to take these vaccinations, when these vaccinations could actually hurt them further?’”
Martinez, a former teacher and school administrator, said education can help a child overcome almost any challenge, but that adding barriers for medically frail students “only blocks their path to learning and belonging.”
With less than two weeks left in this year’s legislative session, Kane warned that time is running out to garner support for the bill and bring it to a vote.
“As of today, it would be very hard to pull off, but not impossible, and we’re putting a full effort into making it happen,” Kane said. Even if the bill doesn’t pass, “it doesn’t die,” Kane said, as there will be another opportunity to get the bill passed next year.
Williams said she is trying to bring the bill to a vote, but if she’s unsuccessful, she will continue supporting the legislation in the next session.
“Even if it doesn’t come to the floor, as long as I am an assembly member, I would continue to carry that bill,” Williams said. “I will continue to fight for this bill. I will continue to fight for our parents and for our children whose rights are being taken away.”
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State officials ‘itching to deny these exemptions,’ parents say
In recent weeks, a growing number of parents of vaccine-injured children in New York have come forward about the denial of their children’s medical exemptions.
“Gina,” the mother of another vaccine-injured New York child, “Angelo,” recounted a similar experience. Angelo, who has Down syndrome, was barred from his special needs private school in Manhattan in January after the school denied his previously approved medical exemption on the advice of the DOH.
According to Gina, when Angelo was in preschool, he received several early childhood immunizations, after which “he just exploded with autoimmune diseases.” A Minnesota doctor diagnosed him with acquired secondary immunodeficiency — a disorder that affects the immune system — and issued him a medical exemption.
Angelo’s injuries include rheumatoid arthritis and uveitis, a type of eye inflammation that is gradually depriving him of his eyesight.
Having relocated to New York, Angelo’s family submitted the exemption to his school in September 2024. In January, the school informed Angelo and Gina that New York City’s health department had denied the exemption and that he was barred from attending school. The city also denied two follow-up requests.
Gina said her efforts to speak with city officials have been frustrating and that they are “itching to deny these exemptions and are looking for any reason to do so.”
Angelo, whose story was the subject of a CHD.TV interview on Tuesday, has been deprived of the opportunity to receive speech, occupational and physical therapy by not being able to attend school. Gina hasn’t been able to return to work due to Angelo’s vision loss and medical appointments, she said.
Gina welcomed the proposed Education for All Act, saying that public health officials in New York aren’t being held accountable. “I believe that they’ve made it as complicated and convoluted and untransparent as they can. They’re trying to put so many walls up and insulate themselves,” Gina said.
Kerry O’Duibhir recounted a similar experience. Her daughter, Grace, received some childhood vaccines before starting kindergarten. However, after receiving “several vaccines overnight” to meet the school’s enrollment requirements, Grace developed “severe OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder], anxiety and full-body tics.”
After several years of searching, Grace’s family found a physician who issued her a medical exemption before she entered sixth grade. But when Grace was in seventh grade, her school revoked the exemption and barred her from attending.
“They didn’t allow her to finish seventh grade, with only about six weeks left. They didn’t let her finish from home,” O’Duibhir said.
O’Duibhir added:
“There shouldn’t be a question if a certified physician writes a medical exemption, and there shouldn’t be so many qualifications. What happened to my daughter might not fit their criteria, but it fits ours. It’s not up to them. It’s up to our physician and the parents, as it should be.”
Related articles in The Defender- Mom, Teen Sue School That Refused to Grant Hep B Vaccine Medical Exemption
- NIH Study Confirms Waning Support for Vaccine Mandates — Will States Use Findings to Repeal Exemptions?
- The Case Against New York’s Repeal of Religious Exemption — What’s Next?
- Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Challenging New York’s Removal of Religious Exemption for Schoolchildren
- CHD Appeals to U.S. Supreme Court to Stop New York From Excluding Kids With Medical Exemptions for Vaccines From Online Education
