West Virginia currently enforces strict immunization requirements for children entering K-12 schools. To enroll, students must provide proof of vaccination against hepatitis B, varicella (chickenpox), rubella, mumps, measles, polio, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), and diphtheria. The law permits medical exceptions.
Confusion started earlier this year when Governor Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order stating that the States’s Equal Freedom of Religion law overrules the vaccine law. Thus, allowing parents to not vaccinate their children before entering school if they have religious objections.
However, West Virginia’s Board of Education took an opposite stance by having county schools follow the current law requiring proof of vaccination before entering school unless medically exempted.
Now lawsuits from both sides are popping up across the state. In Mineral County, a judge denied a family’s request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed religious exemption. Meanwhile, in Raleigh County, a judge granted a temporary injunction permitting multiple families religious exemptions. That Raleigh County case has been consolidated with a Kanawha County lawsuit, where parents of immune-compromised children are seeking to block religious exemptions.
Lack of clarification has made this a county-to-county issue. It will be interesting to see how this is handled. The state’s supreme court has given both sides of the Raleigh County case until February to file their briefs. It is also important to note that West Virginia’s Legislature begins its session in January, and they could change the current law.