Despite the West Virginia House of Delegates rejecting a bill that would allow religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office says his executive order on religious exemptions remains in effect. (Getty Images).
Despite state lawmakers’ rebuke of religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements on Monday, the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health said Tuesday it will continue to follow Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s executive order requiring religious exemptions.
“Yesterday’s House vote on Senate Bill 460 has no bearing on Gov. Morrisey’s executive order allowing for religious exemptions for school vaccines,” wrote Gailyn M. Markham, deputy director of communications for the Office of Shared Administration, in an email. “The West Virginia Department of Health will continue to abide by and comply with that order.”
Julie Bertram, health services coordinator for Wood County Schools, stated that since the January 14 executive order, the Bureau for Public Health has informed a few families in her school system who have requested religious exemptions that the state will take “no action” in court if the child does not meet the immunization requirements. The families, school nurses, and the school system should all receive a copy of the letter from the bureau, she said.
School nurses then notify families that they have received a letter from the Bureau of Public Health confirming their child’s exemption and that they may return to school.
Bertram stated that after the Legislature rejected the bill, she wonders if the letter qualifies as an exemption.
According to Bertram, the state Department of Education did not provide any new guidance to school nurses, who have historically enforced immunization laws, on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the state Department of Education did not immediately respond to a question about how the department advised parents seeking religious exemptions.
On Monday, the House rejected Senate Bill 460 by a vote of 42 to 56. The bill would have allowed families who objected to the shots for religious reasons to submit a written statement to their school administrator in order to be exempt from the requirements.
The state’s private and parochial schools would have been able to set their own vaccination requirements. It would also have changed the state’s medical exemption process for vaccination requirements, allowing a child’s medical provider to submit a medical exemption without first obtaining approval from the state immunization officer.
Until the executive order, West Virginia was one of only five states that allowed medical exemptions from school vaccination requirements. Following the vote Monday, state Democrats urged the governor to rescind the executive order.
Morrisey’s spokesman said the order would not be rescinded.
“We still have three weeks of [the legislative] session, so they may try to bring [the legislation] back, but I’m pretty sure that West Virginians have spoken,” Bertram told the audience.
“I think the legislators have gone out and spoken to the communities, they’ve polled West Virginians, and I think they feel pretty strongly, that’s how they could get those Republicans on board with them that West Virginians are not for this, the vast majority.”
