Are we restricted to homeschooling if we choose not to vaccinate our child?

Question

We live in New Jersey. Our son will still be too young for school in September 2007. He will be ready for Fall 2008.

Answer 1

New Jersey accepts exemptions for religious and medical reasons only. here are some sites that can help you with state info: www.nvic.org www.thinktwice.com

Great choice in keeping your children naturally healthy without increasing their risk of Autism, ADHD, Diabetes, and other Autoimuune diseases that are being linked to vaccines!!!

Answer 2

Good grief, another bunch of typical responses from YA-ers who don't know the answer to your question and yet try to convince you that you don't know what's best for your child.
I'm glad to see a few sane answers in the midst of all the nonsense.
Typically, you just sign a waiver with the school nurse saying you have religious objections to homeschooling. If they ask what religion, say Catholic. They don't need to know more than that, and if you want to do your homework, you'll see why some Catholics object to vaccinations. If you're not Catholic, who cares? If you say you have "philosophical objections" that might work too, but if you say you have medical/health objections, they may require a doctor's signature, which can be hard to get.
The only catch is that if there is an outbreak of something, your child may not be allowed to attend school until it's over. No big deal.
I'm sure some research at the library will provide you with details about what the state of NJ requires, but I'm pretty sure they can't require the vaccinations across the board. they always have to offer an out.

Answer 3

Earl D-I was vaccinated and still got chicken pox. Also, think about how flu vaccine sales are increasing, and yet at the same time, the number of flu cases are increasing. Vaccines are useless. They may have been necessary at one point in history, but now they do more harm than good. The only people benefiting from vaccines are those working in the medical field who profit from the ignorance and fear of people willing to believe anything they see on TV.

My little sister is starting kindergarden this year and she is not going to be vaccinated. She has been registered for school. The government has no legal right to refuse her because she has not been vaccinated.

Answer 4

With the exception of a couple of states, you are allowed to have your children attend public school, even if they are not vaccinated (as others have said, you just need to sign a waiver, most of which allow religious, medical, and/or personal objection as reasons).

The waiver should state that if an epic breaks out of the particular disease that your child is not vaccinated for, he/she will need to stay home until the epic is over with. By signing the waiver, you are agreeing to keep your child home, and to make sure he/she stays current with his/her school work.

I say "cheers" to you for having the gumption for not blindly accepting vaccinations as something you MUST do! Every few years doctors realize that something they *knew* was good advice ends up being bad advice. My children have some vaccinations, but I've refused to allow them to get vaccinated for all these new ones the system is trying to push through.

Best of luck!

~Kyanna

Answer 5

You can opt out for religious or medical reasons, though most schools will not tell you that.

And to those that didn't answer the question but merely yelled at you for your choices...it is a personal choice. There are valid medical reasons that would make it unwise for a child to be vaccinated, especially if a close family member has had a violent or fatal reaction. Vaccinations are often helpful, but they are not a catch-all...and too often these days, they are driven by political and monetary reasons rather than medical. Please don't be disrespectful to people for their choices just because you don't understand or agree with them.

My child has also been vaccinated, but I understand others' reasons for not doing so.

Answer 6

That depends, if there is a medical reason that your child can not be vaccinated you might be able to get around the rule with a doctors signed statement, if not you will probably need to vaccinate.

Aside from that, as a homeschooler I don't see homeschooling as a "restriction" at all. It provides you with the freedom to raise your children as you feel is best, academically, spiritually, morally, and yes, even medically. :-)

Answer 7

I just read somewhere the other day that every school has a paper that a parent can sign that states you won't vaccinate your child for religious purposes. Personally, we home school but if I were to send my kids to public school, the reason for not vaccinating would not be religious, but due to the fact that I don't want to inject my children with all the added chemicals they add to those shots. Now I remember, Dr. Mercola recently had a newsletter about a bet between Drs. Something about one Dr. offering something like $75K to another Dr. willing to drink the toxic blend that goes in with those vaccines. The bet has gone up and has not been taken up on. Check out the link.

Answer 8

I am not sure about the rest of immunizations, but a Mumps immunization is required for school only because of the outbreak they had back in 1984 or 5 where an unvaccinated child spread the mumps in the school there in New Jersey. I would check with the school system that he will be going to just to make sure. I think you can do religious reasons for the rest.

Answer 9

Actually you can sign a waiver for religious reasons and you should be allowed to enroll your student. Most school districts demand the immunizations and do not tell you that you have that option. Simply ask for a vaccination waiver form.

Answer 10

I don't know about NJ, but in our state, the parents can fill out a form stating that they have chosen not to vaccinate their children, then are eligible for public school. The biggest problem is that the school environment is a breeding ground for disease and if there *is* an outbreak (as there was in our city last year), even immunized kids are at risk, as the immunization is generally only 90% effective.

The reason for mass immunization is that if I have 90% immunity and you have 90% immunity and we're the only two people we ever meet, we both have a 10% x10% (or 1% as .1 x .1 = .01) risk. The more people who are immunized, the lower the risk for any of them to contract the disease. So by *not* immunizing your kids, you're really increasing not only their chance of contracting the disease, but the chances of everyone else's kids as well.

On the other hand, immunizations are only effective for 10-15 years (in general) and need to be updated, even for adults. So if you're *not* planning to keep up with the immunizations as they age, you might be better off with them contracting the diseases and developing lifetime immunity, assuming they survive the disease itself.