HHS takes aim at Midwestern school that allegedly vaccinated child without parental consent

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights is undertaking a nationwide campaign to protect parental rights in pediatric medicine and cracking down on those institutions that fail to provide parents with access to their children’s medical records, as required by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a video on Wednesday, “A parent’s right to guide their child’s health decisions — that right is not optional, it’s non-negotiable, and under the Trump administration, it will not be ignored.”

‘Religious exemption rights are one aspect of true informed consent and refusal.’

It appears that HHS already has one alleged offending institution on its radar.

Kennedy indicated that his agency has launched an investigation into a “troubling incident” in the Midwest — where a school is alleged to have illegally vaccinated a child with a federally provided vaccine without the parents’ consent.

According to Kennedy, the child also had a “legally recognized state exemption” for the vaccine.

“When any institution — a school, a doctor’s office, a clinic — disregards a religious exemption, it doesn’t just break trust; it also breaks the law,” said Kennedy. “It fractures the sacred bond between families and the people entrusted with their child’s care, and we are not going to tolerate it.”

In the video, Kennedy did not identify the vaccine, school, or state involved in the case, and when pressed for comment by USA Today, HHS reportedly declined to provide any clues.

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Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

HHS indicated that its Office for Civil Rights will determine whether the school acted in compliance with the Vaccines for Children Program requirement that conditions the federal provision of reduced-cost, public-purchased vaccines for eligible children on compliance with state religious and other exemptions from vaccine laws.

Extra to scrutinizing the school’s conduct, HHS provided a strong reminder to health care providers in a letter on Wednesday that the HIPAA privacy rule “generally gives the parent the right to access the child’s medical records as the child’s personal representative, unless one of the limited exceptions applies.”

Absent limited exceptions such as in the case of children for whom health care decisions are made at the direction of a court or a person appointed by a court, HHS emphasized that “a covered entity (and, where applicable, its business associate acting on the covered entity’s behalf) may not place additional limitations on a parent’s access to the child’s medical records beyond any existing limitations in applicable law.”

In September, HHS’ Office for Civil Rights sent another “Dear Colleagues” letter on theme, noting that providers participating in the Vaccines for Children Program must follow state laws relating to religious and other exemptions to vaccination laws.

“The Vaccines for Children Program should never circumvent parents’ rights,” CDC acting Director Jim O’Neill said of the latest initiative on the part of the HHS. “Secretary Kennedy’s decision to probe potential abuse of the VFC is a necessary step in restoring public trust in immunization policy.”

Children’s Health Defense, which was chaired by Kennedy from 2015 to 2023, lauded the initiative.

Mary Holland, president and CEO of CHD, said in a statement, “CHD strongly supports the right to informed consent and informed refusal of all medical interventions — this is the essence of what the Nuremberg Code stands for.”

“That document was the antidote to the medical atrocities of World War II,” continued Holland. “Religious exemption rights are one aspect of true informed consent and refusal — whether that ‘informed’ nature comes from religion or science or wherever else.”

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