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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
For religious, a parent or guardian signs the state's form, EPID 230A.It is a sworn statement against shots for religious reasons.It must be signed in front of a notary. A notary is a person who watches you sign.The school needs the original, turned in when your child signs up.An adult can object to their own shots with a sworn statement.So can an emancipated minor, a minor who is legally on their own.
You do
1.Print form EPID 230A from the state health department.2.Mark each shot you object to. Initial and date each one.3.Sign it in front of a notary.4.Hand the original to the school or child care when your child signs up.5.Keep a copy at home.
The paper
EPID 230A, Commonwealth of Kentucky Parent or Guardian's Declination on Religious Grounds to Required Immunizations. The state publishes the form. A notary has to witness it. It does not expire. Open the form
Source. law.justia.com, apps.legislature.ky.gov, chfs.ky.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
Kentucky has two exemptions: medical and religious.An exemption lets a child skip a shot.For medical, the child's health care provider writes that a shot would harm the child.The provider marks the state shot record as a medical exemption.It can be for a short time or for good.
You do
1.Ask the child's health care provider to put it in writing.2.Ask for the state shot record marked as a medical exemption.3.Give it to any school, child care or activity that asks.
The paper
Commonwealth of Kentucky Certificate of Immunization Status, form EPID 230, marked to designate a medical exemption. A doctor signs it. It does not expire.
Source. law.justia.com,

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

Kentucky

Your choices

Choice 1. Religious exemption

Choice 2. The shot record

Choice 3. Medical exemption

Good to know