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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. Personal belief exemption
The state says
One shot is the parent's choice alone, at the parent's "sole discretion": the HPV shot.HPV is short for human papillomavirus.First read the state health board's papers on HPV and cervical cancer.Then you may choose that your child not get it.This choice covers no other shot.
You do
1.Read the state health board's HPV papers.2.Write and sign a dated note saying your child will not get the HPV shot.3.Keep it in your folder. Give a copy if your superintendent asks.
The paper
Parent's or guardian's election not to receive the human papillomavirus vaccine. There is no state form to fill in. How long it lasts: None stated in the statute or in the regulation.
Source. law.lis.virginia.gov
Write the statement
Choice 2. Religious exemption
The state says
Virginia allows a religious exemption.The paper is the state's Certificate of Religious Exemption, Form CRE-1.It says shots conflict with your religious beliefs or practices.You sign it in front of a notary. A notary is a person who watches you sign.For a child taught at home, it goes to your superintendent.No end date is named on the form or in the law.In an outbreak, the state health chief may keep the child out of school.That lasts until the outbreak passes.
You do
1.Print Form CRE-1.2.Sign it in front of a notary.3.Hand it to your superintendent's office.4.Keep a copy with the date you gave it.
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
Virginia allows a medical exemption.A doctor, an advanced practice nurse or the local health department writes it.It says one or more shots may harm your child's health.It names the health problem.It says how long the problem will likely last.The law does not name a form.
You do
1.Ask your child's doctor for the written statement.2.Hand it to your superintendent's office.3.Keep a copy.
The paper
Written certification that a shot may harm the child's health. A doctor signs it. How long it lasts: For as long as the certification says the condition will likely last.
Source. law.lis.virginia.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

Virginia

Your choices

Choice 1. Personal belief exemption

Choice 2. Religious exemption

Choice 3. The shot record

Choice 4. Medical exemption

Good to know