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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
The state calls it personal conviction. That means a strong personal belief.A parent, guardian or legal custodian signs a written statement against the shot.An adult student signs for himself or herself.It goes to the school, child care center or nursery school.No doctor and no notary are needed. A notary is a person who watches you sign.The law and the form set no end date.
You do
1.On the Student Immunization Record, check the personal conviction box.2.Check each shot your child will skip.3.List the dates of shots your child already had.4.Sign it, date it and hand it in.For child care, use the Child Care Immunization Record instead. Check its personal conviction box and list past shot dates.
The paper
Student Immunization Record, Department of Health Services form F-04020L, personal conviction waiver box, or the parent's own written statement. There is no state form to fill in. How long it lasts: None stated in the law or on the form; a vaccine or dose required after enrollment needs its own new waiver. Open the form
Source. docs.legis.wisconsin.gov, dhs.wisconsin.gov
Write the statement
Choice 2. Religious exemption
The state says
Religion is one of the three reasons in the law.A parent, guardian or legal custodian signs a written statement against the shot.An adult student signs for himself or herself.The form asks for a signature, not proof of a church.No doctor and no notary are needed.The law and the form set no end date.
You do
1.On the Student Immunization Record, check the religious reasons box.2.Check each shot your child will skip.3.List the dates of shots your child already had.4.Sign it, date it and hand it in.For child care, use the Child Care Immunization Record instead. Check its religious reasons box and list past shot dates.
The paper
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
Health is the third reason in the law.A doctor must sign this one.The doctor names the shots that could harm your child's health.The doctor signs the health box on the shot record form, for school or for child care.
You do
1.Take the shot record form to the doctor. For school it is the Student Immunization Record. For child care it is the Child Care Immunization Record.2.The doctor lists the shots, then signs and dates the health box.3.List the dates of shots your child already had.4.Hand the form to the school or child care center.
The paper
Student Immunization Record, Department of Health Services form F-04020L, health reasons waiver box. A doctor signs it. How long it lasts: None stated in the law or on the form; a vaccine or dose required after enrollment needs its own new waiver. Open the form

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

Wisconsin

Your choices

Choice 1. Personal belief exemption

Choice 2. Religious exemption

Choice 3. The shot record

Choice 4. Medical exemption

Good to know