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Your choices

The law allows each choice below. Read what each one covers.

An exemption is a paper that says a shot rule does not apply to this person.

Before you decide: what each shot is for, and your rights

Choice 1. Religious exemption
The state says
The law lets a parent or guardian object in writing, in good faith, for religious reasons.A student 18 or older can object for himself or herself.The objection goes to DC Health, the District's health office.It goes there by way of the school or licensed child care.DC Health's form is the Annual Immunization Religious Exemption Certificate.DC Health says that form or another writing should be sent.It is good for one school year, July 1 to June 30.
You do
1.Fill out the certificate.Check and initial each shot you object to.2.Print your name, sign and date it.3.Give it to the school or licensed child care.They send it on to DC Health.4.Do it again before each school year.Use a separate certificate for each child.
The paper
Annual Immunization Religious Exemption Certificate, or another writing the parent or adult student signs. The state publishes the form. It has to be written again every year. Open the form
Source. code.dccouncil.gov, vaccines.dc.gov, osse.dc.gov
Write the statement
Choice 2. The shot record
You do
1.Ask the doctor's office or the health department for a copy.2.Put one copy for each student in your folder.
The paper
The shot record from the doctor's office or the health department.
Choice 3. Medical exemption
The state says
The law also lets a doctor or nurse practitioner write that a shot is medically inadvisable.That means the shot should not be given, for health reasons.The District's school shot policy says a medical exemption does not end.The one exception is when the provider writes it as short term.
You do
1.Ask the doctor or nurse practitioner to mark the exemption on the Universal Health Certificate.Or ask for a signed or stamped letter that says the shot is medically inadvisable.2.Give it to the school or child care.
The paper
Universal Health Certificate, or a signed or stamped letter from the physician or nurse practitioner. A doctor signs it. It does not expire. Open the form
Source. code.dccouncil.gov

Everywhere in America

Where a shot record actually gets asked for, and where it does not.

School enrollment: Enrolling a child in a school, public, private or religious, means handing that school an immunization certificate or an exemption, because each state writes its own school rule.
Licensed daycare and preschool: A state's school rule usually reaches licensed child care too, and the word that decides it is licensed. A drop in nursery or a parents day out below the licensing line is usually outside it.
Club and recreation sports: A club asks for age, fees and a sports physical. The playing rules US Youth Soccer publishes carry no immunization condition, and neither do Little League's published eligibility rules. A shot rule turns up when the venue does it: a school gym, a hospital, a licensed camp.
Scouting: Scouting America's annual health form asks for a tetanus shot within the last 10 years, and Scouting America publishes an immunization exemption request form for families who decline.
Summer camp: A camp accredited by the American Camp Association has to collect a health history from every camper, and the association's own guidance says a signed refusal counts as the record.
Dual enrollment: A community college course, and coursework taken online, often sits outside a state's college immunization law. North Carolina and Texas both write that exclusion into their own statutes.
Living on campus: Both of those statutes are written around the student who is on campus full time, so the moment to plan for is the first full time semester on a campus.
Enlisting: Nobody is turned away from enlistment for being unvaccinated. Recruits are immunized by the military in their first days of basic training.
Healthcare training: A nursing or allied health student can be admitted to the program and still be blocked from the clinical hours, because the clinical site, not the college, decides which exemptions it accepts.
Travel abroad: Some countries ask for proof of yellow fever vaccination on an international certificate before letting a traveler in. A doctor can write a medical waiver on that certificate, and the destination country may or may not accept it.

State Setup & Compliance

District of Columbia

Your choices

Choice 1. Religious exemption

Choice 2. The shot record

Choice 3. Medical exemption

Good to know