Empowered Homefront

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 one is for school.One parent or guardian signs it.It says the shots go against your religious beliefs.It must be on the state's own form, Imm.P.11A.A letter you write yourself will not do.No notary is needed.It does not need to be renewed each year.You may pick some shots or all of them.
You do
1.Print form Imm.P.11A from the state health department website.2.Check the shots you object to.3.Sign and date it.4.Give the original to the school office.
The paper
Religious Immunization Exemption (Imm.P.11A). The state publishes the form. It does not expire. Open the form
Source. revisor.mo.gov, law.cornell.edu, health.mo.gov
Get the state form
Choice 2. Personal belief exemption
The state says
This one is only for child care.It covers a day care, preschool or nursery school with ten or more children.The rule calls it a parent or guardian exemption.It does not have to be for religious reasons.It uses form Imm.P.11.You must sign a new one every year.
You do
1.Print form Imm.P.11 from the state health department website.2.Sign it and give it to the day care office.3.Sign a new one every year.
The paper
Parent/Guardian Immunization Exemption (Imm.P.11). The state publishes the form. It has to be written again every year. Open the form
Source.
Choice 3. 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 4. Medical exemption
The state says
A doctor fills in this form, Imm.P.12.Only an MD or DO, or someone the doctor names (a designee), may sign.The doctor says a shot would seriously endanger your child's health or life.Or the doctor shows your child had the disease or tests immune.It works for school and for child care.It does not need to be renewed each year.
You do
1.Ask the doctor to fill in and sign form Imm.P.12.2.Give it to the school office or child care.
The paper
Medical Immunization Exemption (Imm.P.12). A doctor signs it. It does not expire. Open the form
Source. revisor.mo.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

Missouri

Your choices

Choice 1. Religious exemption

Choice 2. Personal belief exemption

Choice 3. The shot record

Choice 4. Medical exemption

Good to know