By Duncan Slade for Mountain State Spotlight, www.mountainstatespotlight.com
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at https://mountainstatespotlight.org/newsletter.
This month, students across West Virginia are returning to school — and at least for now — they have to be vaccinated.
As that first day of class approached, there’s been a flurry of courtroom action, social media posts, and press releases that may leave families confused about the status of West Virginia’s vaccination requirements for public schools.
Childhood vaccination is one of the most effective ways to control and prevent disease. Vaccines have saved millions of lives in recent decades.
West Virginia has some of the highest vaccination rates for kindergarteners in the country, a rare bright spot in a state with poor health and shorter life expectancy.
Here’s what you need to know.
What does West Virginia law say about vaccinations?
State law requires students to be vaccinated against measles, chicken pox and other illnesses.
If a kid wants to attend West Virginia public schools, they have to be vaccinated to protect themselves and others. Over the last decade, state officials have approved only a couple dozen medical exemptions per year, which require a doctor’s certification.
Conservative activists and politicians have unsuccessfully tried to change the state law for several years. The GOP has controlled the office of the governor and legislative supermajorities but not been able to pass a new vaccine law.
On his first day in office, Gov. Patrick Morrisey ordered state health officials to allow religious exemptions under a 2023 law preventing the state from substantially burdening a person’s free exercise of religion. Morrisey argues that forcing parents to vaccinate their kids violates their deeply held religious beliefs.
Parents can still seek an exemption for their child through the state Bureau for Public Health.
But the state immunization law stands unchanged and the West Virginia Board of Education directed schools to keep requiring vaccinations.
What’s happening in the courts?
Miranda Guzman, a Raleigh County parent, applied for and received a religious exemption from state health officials for her four-year-old who is entering preschool. After being told that the religious exemption would not be accepted, she sued state and local school officials.
Other parents have joined her lawsuit, arguing that their religious beliefs not to vaccinate are being violated.
Morrisey has backed the lawsuit. In a court filing, he argued that the state Board of Education is not considering the 2023 religious freedom law and should allow religious exemptions.
Last month, a judge ordered that the kids in the case can go to school without vaccinations. A full hearing is scheduled for mid-September.
“We’re going to keep pressing away in court, or ultimately have the Legislature take action,” Morrisey said on Wednesday in Parkersburg.
Does that court ruling apply to my kid’s school?
The judge’s order in Raleigh County currently only applies to the parents in the case and their kids.
The judge has set another hearing for Sept. 10 and 11 to hear more arguments and determine whether the kids get to continue attending school under a religious exemption. And the case could be appealed all the way to the state Supreme Court.
I got a vaccine exemption from the state. Is it valid?
For this school year, state health officials have issued almost 450 religious exemptions. But, religious exemptions that have been issued are not valid under guidance from the state Board of Education.
Counties have been directed to follow the long-standing state law that requires children to be vaccinated before they begin school.
How does this affect students at private and public charter schools?
Private and parochial schools set their own vaccination policies.
Earlier this week, the state’s charter school board directed the seven schools under its supervision to accept religious exemptions. But two days later, the state Board of Education told the charter school board that it needed to comply with its directive, which does not allow religious exemptions.
Disclosure: The law firm of Bailey & Glasser represents the state Board of Education in the Raleigh County vaccine case. One of the firm’s co-founders, Ben Bailey, is chairman of Mountain State Spotlight’s board of directors.
