Lansing — Dozens of people crammed into a committee hearing room Thursday to weigh in on legislation to stop the state’s health department from requiring a signed waiver from parents of schoolchildren who are not vaccinated against major communicable diseases.
Supporters of the legislation sponsored by Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Potterville, say the bills attempt to rein in the state’s Department of Health and Human Services after it adopted a 2014 administrative rule requiring parents who don’t want their school-age kids vaccinated to sign a waiver and “receive education” about vaccines from a county health department to attend school.
Michigan had the sixth most kindergarteners in the nation waived from required immunizations during the 2014-2015 school year, according to state data. The rate dropped 35 percent and then held steady after adoption of the new rule.
But Barrett argued Thursday that it’s not the state health department’s place to require the waiver and called it “government overreach.”
His legislation would allow parents to state in writing to school officials that their children were not vaccinated. They would no longer file a form with the health department, relying instead on the school to submit that information to the state, according to the legislation.
State health officials’ rule “interjects them in between themselves and the school,” said Joel Dorfman with the Troy-based Michigan for Vaccine Choice. He criticized the department for subjecting such parents “to what is termed an ‘education,’ but is really an indoctrination” highlighting the benefits of vaccination.
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