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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
This is for a parent or legal guardian.It is for religious beliefs that reject shots.You sign the state's Affidavit of Religious Belief.An affidavit is a paper you swear is true.On it, you swear to a belief in a relation to a Supreme Being, with duties above any human duty.You also swear the belief is not a political, social or philosophical view or a personal moral code.A notary must watch you sign it.A notary is a person who checks who you are and watches you sign.The state does not take a letter you write yourself for a public school.If the state health office declares an outbreak, or says your child may have been exposed, your child must stay home from school for a time.
You do
1.Print the state's Affidavit of Religious Belief.2.Sign it in front of a notary.3.Give the signed paper to the school.4.Keep a copy in your home school folder.
The paper
Affidavit of Religious Belief. The state publishes the form. A notary has to witness it. It does not expire. Open the form
Source. law.justia.com, codes.findlaw.com, regulations.justia.com, education.delaware.gov, delcode.delaware.gov
Get the state form
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
An exemption is a paper that lets a child skip a shot.The law says a medical doctor or a doctor of osteopathy writes it.The state's form says a licensed health care provider fills it out.The provider says a shot would likely harm the child.The state's form lists common reasons.A reason on the list needs no more approval.A reason not on the list goes to the state health office to review.A temporary exemption lasts one school year.
You do
1.Ask the doctor to fill out the School Vaccination Medical Exemption Form.2.Give it to the school nurse.3.If the reason is not on the form, a second form goes with it.4.

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

Delaware

Your choices

Choice 1. Religious exemption

Choice 2. The shot record

Choice 3. Medical exemption

Good to know