2017 Texas Vaccine Exemption Information

The state of Texas in law grants and acknowledges the right of parents to exempt their children from vaccination requirements for day care, school, and college for reasons of conscience including a religious belief or for medical reasons.  In 2003, the Texas legislature passed changes to the statutes expanding the reasons a parent can claim an exemption but the Health Department has questionably also increased the bureaucratic red tape necessary for claiming the exemption.  There are specific procedures for requesting an official state form and submitting it to the school or for completing a medical exemption that all take some time so please don't wait until the last minute to get your papers in order.

For everyone claiming an exemption for the first time after 9/1/03, you must comply with the new law. If you've submitted an old religious exemption prior to 9/1/03, you are grandfathered under the old law (see notes below) and do not need a new form. The vaccine exemption forms for reasons of conscience including a religious belief are only for students claiming a vaccine exemption for the first time after 9/1/03 when the new law went into effect.  If you need to request forms from the state health department, you can do it by fax, mail, personal visit, or through an online submission form. If you send your request by mail, we suggest sending it registered mail with a receipt so you can keep track of your request. If you send it by fax, set your fax machine to print out a delivery receipt.  We would like to keep track of the Health Department's processing time. 

According to the Texas Dept. of State Health Services :

Obtaining an Affidavit

A person claiming exclusion for reasons of conscience, including a religious belief, from a required immunization may only obtain the affidavit form by submitting a request (via online form, mail, fax or hand-delivery) to the department. The request must include following information:

• Full name of child or student
• Child's or student's date of birth (month/day/year)
• Complete mailing address, including telephone number
• Number of requested affidavit forms (not to exceed 5).

Affidavit form requests will be processed and mailed within one week from the receipt of the request. If additional information is needed in order to process the affidavit, you will be notified.

Email or telephone requests cannot be processed. Requests for affidavit forms must be submitted to the department through one of the following methods:

Obtaining an Affidavit Online

Affidavits may be requested via the Immunization Unit Affidavit Request website.

 

Obtaining an Affidavit By Mail

A written request for an affidavit may be sent through the United States Postal Service (or other commercial carrier) to:

Texas Department of State Health Services
Immunization Branch, Mail Code 1946
P.O. Box 149347
Austin, Texas 78714-9347

Obtaining an Affidavit By Fax

Fax written requests for affidavits to: (512) 776-7544.

Obtaining an Affidavit In Person

Requests for an affidavit may be made in-person at:

Texas Department of State Health Services
1100 West 49th Street
Austin, Texas 78756

NOTE: No requests will be filled at the time of hand-delivery.
All affidavit forms will be mailed to you via U.S. Postal Service.

 

(SOURCE: http://www.dshs.texas.gov/immunize/school/exemptions.aspx )

IT IS OUR OPINION THAT PARENTS SHOULD OBTAIN A WRITTEN NOTE FROM THE SCHOOL ACKNOWLEDGING RECEIPT OF THE EXEMPTION FORM. IF THE SCHOOL LOOSES THE FORM THEY CAN KICK YOUR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL. IF YOU HAVE A WRITTEN RECEIPT FROM THE SCHOOL THAT YOU SUBMITTED THE FORM, YOU CAN PUT THE RESPONSIBILITY BACK ON THE SCHOOL TO GO FIND IT AND KEEP YOUR CHILD IN SCHOOL.  One way to accomplish this would be to photocopy the notarized form before you submit it for the first time and ask the nurse or someone in the office to sign the photocopy and date it with next to a statement that says "I acknowledge that the original of this form was submitted to (name of school) on (date)."

It is also our opinion that the department is outside of the law requiring that parents submit their children's names to get a form especially since the law required the department to develop a blank form.  They are also exceeding their authority in the statute by putting 2 year expirations on the new forms as the statute specifies no expiration.

If you would like to volunteer to help get the law further changed to prevent this behavior, please contact us through our website.  Until this is changed legislatively, these are the procedures the DSHS has set up. It would be great if you could go to the home page of this web site and look up your state representative and senator and let them know that these arbitrary expirations placed by the health department on your exemption are harassment and need to be stopped.

Ignorant school officials around the state have denied kids admission to school if they have an old religious exemption affidavit saying they need one of the new forms from the health department.  THIS IS NOT TRUE! If you hear this is happening in your district, please call the superintendent's office and give them this link to the state health department where it clearly says you don't need a new form. Also, when you transfer schools, the old religious exemption letter is still part of your child's record and you do not need a new one as long as it was part of your child's record prior to 9/1/03.  

http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/immunize/docs/faq_exemption.pdf

On the bottom of page 2, it says:

Q. If a child currently has a religious exemption for vaccinations onfile with the school, do they need to obtain a new vaccineexemption for reasons of conscience affidavit?

A. No. Students who had religious exemptions filed at the school prior to September 1, 2003 do not need a new vaccine exemption affidavit form. The religious exemption on file remains valid.

Also on page 2 it says:

Q. What if my child changes schools?

A. The vaccine exemption affidavit is part of the child's school records and should be sent to the new schoolwith other school records.

Additionally, some schools, daycare facilities and colleges are saying they don't have to accept the exemption.  This is wrong - the law grants parents this right and the schools and daycares can't take this right away.  For your convenience, we've posted links to the state statutes directly below. 

The other option for parents to exempt their child from state immunization requirements is with a medical exemption written by a doctor.  This is intended for families with children with health concerns or a past history of reactions. While this option bypasses the bureaucratic red tape with the conscientious/religious exemption, the pressures on doctors to not write these are great and it may be difficult to get a doctor who acknowledges a vaccine reaction to substantiate that in writing by issuing an exemption.

Regardless, most families and physicians are not aware the exemption statute was greatly expanded to make it much easier for a doctor to write to protect a child from future reactions. No longer do they have to say the vaccine would definitively harm the child but that it instead poses a risk to the child. Any M.D. or D.O. licensed to practice medicine in the United States can write the letter stating that "in the physician's opinion, the vaccine required poses a significant risk to the health and well-being of the child or any member of the child's household." If the letter also says this is for a lifelong condition, (the condition does not need to be named) the exemption never has to be renewed. Otherwise it has to be renewed annually.  The doctor just needs to write it out on a piece of paper and sign it. In this case, you can keep the original and give the school a copy.    

Here is a sample medical exemption letter:

     Medical Exemption to Immunization 

In my opinion, the required immunizations pose asignificant risk to the health and well-being of     (name of child).  This is a lifelong exemption for lifelong conditions.

     Doctor's name, signature, and date

Regarding the recent requirement that college students get vaccinated for meningitis, the exemption conscientious and medical exemptions apply to this as well.  Look at the links below for reference to the laws granting the exemption to the college meningitis vaccine requirement.

Laws Which Allow For Exclusions from Vaccine Requirements

Children and Education including Colleges:

• Texas Education Code, Health and Safety Chapter Section 38.0001 - Immunization Requirement Exceptions
• Texas Education Code, Title 3 Higher Education Section Chapter 51.933 - Immunization Requirements; Exceptions
• Texas Administrative Code Title 25 Part 1 Section 97 - Immunization Requirements in Texas Elementary and Secondary Schools and Institutes of Higher Education 
  (this section contains vaccine requirements by rule, provisional enrollment, and exemptions)
• Texas Education Code Higher Education Section Chapter 51.9192. Bacterial Meningitis Vaccination Required for Certain Student; Exceptions
  

Day Care:

• Human Resource Code, Section 42.043 - Rules for Immunizations and Exemptions

Health Care Providers:

• Texas Administrative Code Title 25 Part 1 Rule § 97.101- Statewide Immunization of Children by Hospitals, Physicians, and other Health Care Providers

State of Texas:

• Texas Health and Safety Code, Section 161.004 - Statewide Immunization of Children

September 29. 2011