West Virginia reinstates school vaccination policy prohibiting religious exemptions

The West Virginia Board of Education reinstated its school vaccination policy after the state Supreme Court paused a lower court’s ruling that allowed parents to cite religious beliefs to opt out of vaccines needed for children to attend school.

The state Supreme Court issued a stay on Tuesday following last week’s ruling by Raleigh County Circuit Judge Michael Froble in a class-action lawsuit. Froble said in his injunction that children whose parents refused the state’s vaccination requirement on religious grounds would be allowed to attend school and participate in extracurricular sports.

Froble’s ruling was blocked pending resolution of appeals in the case.

The board said in a statement that it “is reinstating its directive to county boards of education not to accept religious exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws. This directive will be in effect until the Supreme Court issues further guidance.”

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Additionally, the board said its priority is to ensure compliance with the state vaccine law “and safeguard the health and well-being of all students across West Virginia.”

The vaccine mandate was suspended by the board last week after Froble’s ruling, which stated that the state policy prohibiting parents from seeking religious exemptions violated the Equal Protection for Religion Act signed into law in 2023 by then-Republican Gov. Jim Justice.

West Virginia was among a handful of states to offer only medical exemptions from school vaccinations when Gov. Patrick Morrisey, also a Republican, issued an executive order earlier this year allowing religious exemptions.

But the board voted in June to instruct public schools to ignore the governor’s order and follow long-standing school vaccine requirements outlined in state law.

Two groups had sued to stop Morrisey’s order, arguing that the legislature, not the governor, has the authority to make these decisions.

Legislation that would have allowed the religious exemptions was approved by the state Senate and rejected by the House of Delegates earlier this year.

Froble said in his ruling that the failure to pass the legislation did not determine the application of the 2023 law. He rejected the defendants’ argument that religious exemptions can only be established by legislative moves.

“Legislative intent is not absolute nor controlling in interpreting a statute or determining its application; at most, it is a factor,” Froble said.

A group of parents sued the state and local boards of education and the Raleigh County schools superintendent. One parent obtained a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate from the state health department and enrolled her child in elementary school for the current school year before receiving an email in June from the local school superintendent rescinding the certificate, according to the lawsuit.

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Last month, Froble certified the case as a class action involving 570 families who had received religious exemptions in other parts of the state. He said the class action also applies to parents who seek religious exemptions in the future.

Froble said the total number of exemptions so far involved a small portion of the statewide student population and “would not meaningfully reduce vaccination rates or increase health risks.”

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State law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before attending school.

At least 30 states have religious freedom laws. The laws are modeled after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was signed into law in 1993 by then-President Bill Clinton, allowing federal regulations that interfere with religious beliefs to be challenged.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.