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Your choices

The law lists these shots: polio, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hib, hepatitis B, chickenpox and pneumococcal.

Hib and pneumococcal are not needed after age 5. By 7th grade, meningococcal and a Tdap booster are added. By 12th grade, a meningococcal booster is added.

Source. ncleg.gov, dph.ncdhhs.gov

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
Write a statement of your religious beliefs against the shot rules.The law calls them sincere ("bona fide") beliefs.With it, the person can go to a school, college or child care without a shot certificate.The state has no form. You write your own.No notary and no approval. Nothing is sent to the state.
You do
1.Write one page for each student.2.Put the full name and date of birth.3.Say the objection comes from sincere ("bona fide") religious beliefs.4.Sign it and put it in your home school folder.5.Give a copy to any school, college or child care that asks.
The paper
A written statement of your sincere ("bona fide") religious beliefs, written by the parent or by the adult student. There is no state form to fill in. It does not expire.
Source. ncleg.gov, dph.ncdhhs.gov
Write the statement
Choice 2. The shot certificate
The state says
The doctor or health department that gives a shot gives you a certificate.Its real name is "certificate of immunization."It lists each shot and the date it was given.Shots given in another state need that state's official record.
You do
1.Ask the doctor's office or the county health department for a copy.2.Put one for each student in your home school folder.
The paper
The certificate of immunization from the doctor or the health department.
Source. ncleg.gov
Choice 3. Medical exemption
The state says
A doctor licensed in North Carolina fills out the state's form.The doctor marks the health reason for each shot.Then the person does not need that shot for as long as the reason lasts.If the reason is not on the form, the doctor can ask the State Health Director to approve it.
You do
1.Take the NC Medical Exemption Statement Form to a North Carolina doctor.2.Have the doctor fill it out.3.Put it in your home school folder.4.Give a copy to any school, college or child care that asks.
The paper
NC Medical Exemption Statement Form. A doctor signs it. How long it lasts: As long as the health reason lasts. Open the form
Source.

Public school teams and classes

Where the board allows it, the religious statement or the shot certificate works for a public school team.

Can my child play? See the full guide

College and dual enrollment

The state says. The college shot law covers public, private and religious colleges and universities.The religious statement works at a college or university too.A student gets 30 calendar days from first sign-up to get the required shots.The law does not cover community colleges. That is where most dual enrollment happens.It also does not cover two kinds of students who live off campus:The first takes only off-campus, evening or weekend classes.The second takes no more than four daytime credit hours on campus.

You do. 1.Ask the registrar two things in writing.Does the college shot law cover this campus?How many on-campus day credit hours does the class have?2.If the law covers your student, send the religious statement or the shot certificate.Send it within thirty days of first sign-up.

Where. The college door in the Academic Planner

Source. ncleg.gov

Licensed daycare and preschool

The state says. The shot law fully covers child care.On the child's first day, someone must give a shot certificate to the principal or center operator.That is the parent, guardian or other person in charge of the child.The child has 30 calendar days to get any required shots.The medical exemption and the written religious statement both work there.

You do. Hand the center director one paper on the first day.Do it on day one, not day thirty.It can be the religious statement or the shot certificate.It can also be the filled-out NC Medical Exemption Statement Form.

Source. ncleg.gov, dph.ncdhhs.gov

What to keep on file

The state says. The immunization record for each person, or the written exemption, belongs in the same folder as the rest of the school records.

You do. Keep the record, or the exemption, with everything else the state asks you to keep.

Where. Keep the records

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

North Carolina

Your choices

Choice 1. Religious exemption

Choice 2. The shot certificate

Choice 3. Medical exemption

Good to know