Kids’ Vaccines Forced in California

New legislation pressures parents in California to add a heavy dose of vaccinations to their kid’s back-to-school check list this year — regardless of whether or not parents would choose this route on their own.

Senate Bill 277 prohibits children from pre-K to seventh grade from entering any classrooms or daycare centers without first receiving a strict course of 10 vaccinations. The bill stomps out the “personal beliefs” exemption from immunizations and upholds the medical and special needs exemptions.

“You have to choose between the best education for your child or what you feel is the safest way to vaccinate,” said one parent.

The requirement applies to children entering school for the first time, including kindergartners, kids new to California or new to daycare, and students entering seventh grade. The law does not apply to children in every grade level, and it will be a few more years before all California students must be vaccinated (except for special needs students and those with a medical exemption), according to local reports.

Some parents feel as if the state, governed largely by Democrats, stripped them of their right to choose what is best for their child’s health. Parents held a rally in Santa Monica to protest the new requirement after Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law into action last month.

Cathey Painter of West Hollywood said parents “want freedom of choice. We want parental rights,” as she told NBC Los Angeles.

“You have to choose between the best education for your child or what you feel is the safest way to vaccinate, and I think that goes against everything our country was founded on,” Painter said.

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The immunizations are for various diseases, including measles, mumps, chickenpox, whooping cough, and pertussis, according to the bill. Young students may be subject to immunizations for additional diseases “deemed appropriate by the department, taking into consideration the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians,” the bill states.

The bill says no child will be admitted into “any public or private elementary or secondary school, childcare center, day nursery, nursery school, family daycare home, or development center, unless prior to his or her admission to that institution he or she has been fully immunized against various diseases.”

Democratic State Sens. Richard Pan and Ben Allen wrote Bill 277 after the measles outbreak that started at Disneyland last year and spread to half a dozen U.S. states, Mexico, and Canada. The disease infected 147 people in the U.S., including 131 in California, and ignited a national debate on immunization requirements.

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In an effort to garner support, Pan warned of the safety hazards that could ensue if the government didn’t step in and inflict stricter requirements on vaccinations in schools.

“It’s going to ensure that all children are safe in school from dangerous, preventable diseases,” Pan said.

“Parents should make the decision, with their doctors, to vaccinate their children.”

Critics of Bill 277, including A Voice for Choice, a group campaigning to repeal the law, are fighting hard before the school year begins to reinstate a parent’s right to choose.

Christina Hildebrand, founder and president of the group, argued, “It’s not right for children to be prevented from going to school because of their vaccination status.”

Hildebrand said A Voice for Choice aims to shield families from government overreach.

“Ultimately where we stand is that parents should make the decision to vaccinate their children with their doctors,” Hildebrand said. “It shouldn’t be something brought into the school arena.”

If a parent refuses to fully vaccinate a child, the options are home schooling, a multiple-family home school, or an independent study program through a public school.