BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A bill on Beacon Hill looks to crack down on the religious vaccine exemption for Massachusetts school children.

Northe Saunders, President of American Families for Vaccines, backs the bill, saying the growing excuse rate could threaten herd immunity numbers. He said some Massachusetts schools have already fallen well below the 95% immunization rate needed to protect everyone from measles.

He said a growing number of families have used religious exemptions as an excuse to bypass vaccine requirements for schools in Massachusetts, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a poll commissioned by the non-profit, 75% of Bay State parents with school-aged children support the new bill, S. 1557/H. 2554. While the bill will not force children to receive vaccines, it will prohibit children who are not vaccinated and do not have a medical exemption from attending Massachusetts public schools.

“If parents choose not to vaccinate their kids and want to homeschool them, they have every right to do that,” said Saunders. “No one's holding someone down and forcing them to get vaccinated, this is a rule for school attendance.”

While just over 1% of Massachusetts kindergartners currently have the religious exemption, the bill does not come without criticism. Allison Chapman, of Health Action Massachusetts believes public schools should be open to all.

“It’s not a high percent, and they all have their very strong, heartfelt reasons for doing this,” she said.

Health Action Massachusetts Executive Director Candace Edwards concurred and said that homeschooling children whose families chose not to vaccinate them was not always a possibility.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that vaccine mandates in general were constitutional in 1905 in Jacobson v. Massachusetts. The current U.S. Supreme Court has taken up a handful of cases that touch on vaccine mandates this term, including Kane v. City of New York.

Five other States exclude religious exemptions for vaccines, including California, Connecticut, New York, West Virginia, and Maine.

WBZ NewsRadio’s Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.

Weather

Current Weather