New York Schools May Require Vaccinations, Appeals Court Rules

Written by Lanning Taliaferro (Patch Staff)

The U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld New York state’s rule requiring children be vaccinated to attend school—saying it didn’t violate students’ constitutional rights.

Three parents sued the New York City school system, one whose request to have vaccination waived for religious reasons was denied, and two who had waivers, because their unvaccinated children were not allowed to attend school during an outbreak of chicken pox, according to Education Week.

In its Jan. 7 decision, the court said:

New York could constitutionally require that all children be vaccinated in order to attend public school. New York law goes beyond what the Constitution requires by allowing an exemption for parents with genuine and sincere religious beliefs. Because the State could bar Phillips’s and Mendoza‐Vaca’s children from school altogether, a fortiori, the State’s more limited exclusion during an outbreak of a vaccine‐preventable disease is clearly constitutional.

The parents’ attorneys also argued that scientific evidence shows vaccines to be harmful—to which the court replied that state lawmakers, not parents, would have to change state law.

Education Week reported that the plaintiffs plan to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Read the New York State vaccination requirements for school enrollment and attendance here.

Read the Court of Appeals decision here.

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