Vaccines and School

HI E.,

Vaccines are not required for entry into school. The state of michigan website also has information about it. Michigan allows vaccines to be waived for medical, religious and philosophical reasons. A child cannot be refused enter into a public school or licensed school through the state of michigan as long as the waiver is signed by you. Normally when you get a physical done at the doctors office the doctor will give you a form to sign to waive whatever vaccines you do not want to get and this will be indicated on the physical form that you give to the school. My son is in preschool and has had no problems. When I was looking into preschool I asked ahead of time with several preschools and all of them mentioned the waiver and had no questions/concerns at all. Kindergarten shouldn't be an issue at all either.

Good luck

My son is in Kindergarden and we had not given him all of his shots. I did sign a waiver. I am still on the fence about the whole shots thing. They do have the right to not accept your child. I think they said that they had to at least have certain ones, which my son did. I signed a waiver and then they sent it to the review board with his shot record and they decided that he could attend.
Good Luck!

I had my kids fully vaccinated but do know that the public schools cannot permanently exclude a child because they do not have all their vaccines. You would have to sign a waiver that basically declares you know the risk of your child not having the vaccines and that your child may have to take be excluded for the recommended period of time if there was an outbreak of something your child has not been vaccinated against.
I'm not sure how it works for private preschools, it may just be the waiver again. I know the one I sent my eldest to insisted they were fully vaccinated.

It is a big myth that vaccines are required by the public school system. The State can't make you do anything!! This is still America- for now.

No vaccines are required.. you can sign a waiver. I believe private schools CAN however not allow your child.

PM me and I can find the info from someone if needed.

My son is 3 and when he started Pre-school they started to give me a hard time. I just said here is my refusal form from his dr. that shows has NEVER started shots so where is my release form that I need to sign for the schools. They got it from the Health Dept. and said that once I signed it they would be passing it onto the Health Dept./State for approval and if they denied it my son would either have to get shots or get kicked out of school. Personally I don't think they knew what they were talking about with the approval stuff. I think they were just trying to bully me. Well school started in Sept., it's now almost March and my son is still in school. We refuse the shots for philisopical reasons.
Stand your ground.

E., in Michigan we have the right to refuse vaccinations for our children. The schools MUST accept your child. You MUST fill out a waiver form that the school nurse will have in her office or you can download one from: http://www.momvaccines.org/html/vaccine_waiver.html

More information can be found at
www.mcpakids.org

Dr. Rick Semlow

Hi E.,

One of the best groups for all the info you need is the Michigan based

http://www.momvaccines.org/index.html

They have the waivers, answer questions, prepare you for what you would have to face if you decide not to vaccinate or just to alter the vaccine schedule, and more. They gather all the information so we know what our rights our regarding vaccines and our choices.

Hope you get the chance to check them out.

As a parent who chose not to vaccinate-it was a little bit of a struggle. They (school officials) do try to influence you, even pressure you into "doing the right thing". However, you need to research, trust your gut and then stick to your guns if you decide not to vaccinate. There is a waiver that you will need to sign every year that states if there is an "outbreak" of the vaccinated diseases that your child will be excluded from school during the outbreak. I did not have a problem with that!! It seemed to be more of an issue in the elementary and middle schools-by the time they went to high school there was no longer a waiver to sign. (there were not any "outbreaks" either during the 12 years they were in the district)My boys are now 17 and 20 and perfectly healthy. Thank God. Good luck with your decision. S.

In michigan you can "opt out" by signing a waiver that your are either religiously or philosophically opposed to all or some vaccinations. You can find more information about vaccination schedules and the actual waiver form on the following website. Good Luck to you.
www.momvaccines.org

A private school can require vaccinations and deny your child entry because of a lack of. This also includes daycare centers. However the public schools can not. When you do the enrollment paperwork ask the school if you have to provide the state waiver from the Health Department or do they have it. They should have it, but they don't like to tell you that. When my son started kindergarden 5 years ago, the person at the round up tried to tell me that I had to, and I just kept asking if I had to get it myself. After asking 3 or 4 times they said they had the forms and it's not a big deal. Just keep to your guns if that is what you decide.

Good luck
Chelle E.

There seems to be some debate below on whether or not schools have a right to refuse entry if children are not up to date on vaccines. Public schools CANNOT refuse your right to attend. They can require that you fill out the vaccine waiver form (you can probably find it on michigan.gov if the school doesn't have it). Even if they try to tell you that your child cannot attend, this is not right. They CAN require your child to be removed from school for a certain period of time if there is a disease outbreak (and I belive this is written in the waiver) but that is it. Please don't let any school bully you. I understand they are trying to protect the other children but they may not realize some of the dangers the vaccine schedule can pose to some other children...