ED Law

Abstract

Student vaccinations, immunizations, and inoculations are a fact of life. The mandatory injections are a state’s way of protecting the health and safety of all public students, employees, and visitors. All 50 states have laws requiring school vaccinations. State laws unflinchingly require parents to prove that their child’s vaccinations are up-to-date before the youngster can enroll in public school or even remain in class. Massachusetts passed the first law requiring vaccines for schoolchildren in 1855. For some parents, such requirements are a government overreach. Those parents routinely turn to the courts for relief — they also routinely lose. From the early 1900s, antivaccination lawsuits (including those against school districts) have been spectacularly unsuccessful. Parents base their objections on moral, religious, medical, economic, and other grounds. But unless state law has carved out a specific exemption, courts are largely unsympathetic.