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The West Virginia Board of Education reinstated its faculty vaccination coverage after the state Supreme Court docket paused a decrease courtroom’s ruling that allowed dad and mom to quote non secular beliefs to choose out of vaccines wanted for kids to attend faculty.
The state Supreme Court docket issued a keep on Tuesday following final week’s ruling by Raleigh County Circuit Decide Michael Froble in a class-action lawsuit. Froble mentioned in his injunction that kids whose dad and mom refused the state’s vaccination requirement on non secular grounds can be allowed to attend faculty and take part in extracurricular sports activities.
Froble’s ruling was blocked pending decision of appeals within the case.
The board mentioned in an announcement that it “is reinstating its directive to county boards of schooling to not settle for non secular exemptions to obligatory vaccination legal guidelines. This directive might be in impact till the Supreme Court docket points additional steerage.”
West Virginia was amongst only a handful of states to supply solely medical exemptions from faculty vaccinations when Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an government order earlier this 12 months permitting non secular exemptions. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)
Moreover, the board mentioned its precedence is to make sure compliance with the state vaccine regulation “and safeguard the well being and well-being of all college students throughout West Virginia.”
The vaccine mandate was suspended by the board final week after Froble’s ruling, which acknowledged that the state coverage prohibiting dad and mom from searching for non secular exemptions violated the Equal Safety for Faith Act signed into regulation in 2023 by then-Republican Gov. Jim Justice.
West Virginia was amongst a handful of states to supply solely medical exemptions from faculty vaccinations when Gov. Patrick Morrisey, additionally a Republican, issued an government order earlier this 12 months permitting non secular exemptions.
However the board voted in June to instruct public faculties to disregard the governor’s order and comply with long-standing school vaccine requirements outlined in state regulation.
Two teams had sued to cease Morrisey’s order, arguing that the legislature, not the governor, has the authority to make these selections.
The West Virginia Board of Schooling reinstated its faculty vaccination coverage after the state Supreme Court docket paused a decrease courtroom’s ruling. (iStock)
Laws that may have allowed the non secular exemptions was authorized by the state Senate and rejected by the Home of Delegates earlier this 12 months.
Froble mentioned in his ruling that the failure to go the laws didn’t decide the appliance of the 2023 regulation. He rejected the defendants’ argument that non secular exemptions can solely be established by legislative strikes.
“Legislative intent shouldn’t be absolute nor controlling in decoding a statute or figuring out its software; at most, it’s a issue,” Froble mentioned.
A gaggle of oldsters sued the state and native boards of schooling and the Raleigh County faculties superintendent. One mother or father obtained a spiritual exemption to the vaccine mandate from the state well being division and enrolled her baby in elementary faculty for the present faculty 12 months earlier than receiving an e-mail in June from the native faculty superintendent rescinding the certificates, based on the lawsuit.
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A gaggle of oldsters had sued the state and native boards of schooling and the Raleigh County faculties superintendent. (iStock)
Final month, Froble licensed the case as a category motion involving 570 households who had obtained non secular exemptions in different elements of the state. He mentioned the category motion additionally applies to folks who search non secular exemptions sooner or later.
Froble mentioned the whole variety of exemptions to this point concerned a small portion of the statewide pupil inhabitants and “wouldn’t meaningfully scale back vaccination charges or enhance well being dangers.”
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State regulation requires kids to obtain vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough earlier than attending faculty.
No less than 30 states have religious freedom laws. The legal guidelines are modeled after the federal Non secular Freedom Restoration Act, which was signed into regulation in 1993 by then-President Invoice Clinton, permitting federal laws that intervene with non secular beliefs to be challenged.
The Related Press contributed to this report.