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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
Washington takes a religious exemption.It covers every required shot, even measles, mumps and rubella.A parent or guardian signs that the shots go against their religious beliefs.A licensed health care worker signs the form too.The form has one more religious box, called religious membership.It is for a church that does not allow medical care from health care workers.That box needs no health care worker's signature.The state's health department says the form does not need to be renewed each year.
You do
1.Print the Certificate of Exemption from the state health department's website.2.Fill in the religious part and sign it.3.Get a health care worker's signature.You can skip this if you check the religious membership box.4.Give it to the school or child care center when your child joins one.
The paper
Certificate of Exemption, Department of Health form 348-106. The state publishes the form. How long it lasts: None; the state health department says the Certificate of Exemption does not need to be renewed annually. Open the form
Source. app.leg.wa.gov, lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov, doh.wa.gov
Get the state form
Choice 2. Personal belief exemption
The state says
Washington takes a personal or philosophical exemption.It does not cover every shot.A parent or guardian signs a personal or philosophical objection.It cannot be used for the measles, mumps and rubella shot.A licensed health care worker signs the form too.
You do
1.Print the Certificate of Exemption from the state health department's website.2.Fill in the personal or philosophical part for the other shots.Sign it.3.Get a health care worker's signature.4.Give it to the school or child care center when your child joins one.
The paper
Certificate of Exemption, Department of Health form 348-106. The state publishes the form. How long it lasts: None; the state health department says the Certificate of Exemption does not need to be renewed annually.
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
Washington takes a medical exemption.An exemption is a paper that lets a child skip a shot.A licensed health care worker signs it.That is a doctor, naturopath, nurse practitioner or physician assistant.They write that a shot is not wise for this child.Use the state's form, the Certificate of Exemption.A short term exemption ends on the date they write on the form.When the shot is safe again, the child must get it.
You do
1.Print the Certificate of Exemption from the state health department's website.2.Take it to your child's doctor, naturopath, nurse practitioner or physician assistant.3.They fill in the medical part and sign 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

Washington

Your choices

Choice 1. Religious exemption

Choice 2. Personal belief exemption

Choice 3. The shot record

Choice 4. Medical exemption

Good to know