After Florida’s surgeon general moved to end all state vaccine mandates, including school requirements, some Pennsylvanians may wonder if the same could happen here.

As of now, every state has school vaccine mandates. If Florida follows through with the proposed plan, it would be the first state to completely withdraw from the practice, the Washington Post reported.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said it would be unlikely that Pennsylvania’s vaccine policy would change based on its Democrat-controlled political structure. He said he’s not worried about it — for now.

“There are individuals in the Pennsylvania state government that have tried to introduce ridiculous vaccine laws,” Adalja said, citing state Sen. Doug Mastriano’s Food Purity Protection Act. “It’s not as if we don’t have those types of people … but thankfully, they’re not able to execute some of their wishes.”

Pennsylvania has the following vaccine requirements for students, according to the School Immunizations page of the state website:

Four doses of tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis, or Tdap (one dose on or after the child’s fourth birthday) Four doses of polio (fourth dose on or after the child’s fourth birthday) — a fourth dose is not necessary if the third dose was administered at age four or older, and at least six months after the previous dose Two doses of measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) Three doses of hepatitis B Two doses of varicella (chickenpox) or evidence of immunity Seventh grade — in addition to those above, one dose of Tdap and one dose of the meningococcal vaccine (MCV4) 12th grade — in addition to those above, a second dose of MCV4

Children must have those doses completed and a plan in place for remaining doses by the fifth day of school, or they will be at risk of exclusion, according to a state information page for parents. And single dose vaccines must be completed before the first day of school or children may be excluded from attending.

“Immunization regulations are intended to ensure that children attending school in the commonwealth are adequately protected against potential outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases,” the website says.

The regulations apply to kindergarten, elementary and secondary students enrolled in a public school, private school or nonpublic school, and to students who receive education at home, according to the Education Law Center in Pennsylvania.

However, there are exceptions to the rules.

Students who have disabilities, are experiencing homelessness or just moved or transferred to the state/school are able to obtain exceptions.

Additionally, immunizations aren’t required if the student has medical, religious or strong moral/ethical convictions against immunization. A medical exemption would require a physician’s signature to attest that the vaccines would endanger the life or health of the child.

To prove a religious exemption, the American Bar Association says a person’s claim must include the following:

Submit a claim in writing and agree to answer questions about the claim/submit documentary evidence if needed to authenticate it Acknowledge in the claim that the refusal to be vaccinated may put the person at risk of contracting or transmitting the disease, as well as people around them State the specific reasons why an exemption is being sought Disclose whether the person would agree to accept medical treatment if the person becomes ill from the disease, be tested for the disease or have to wear a mask to protect others Provide a date on which the person began practicing the religion or following the beliefs — and if that date is within the previous three years, the person must also provide a detailed narrative about how the person recently came to the belief State whether the religious belief or practice against vaccination is held universally/uniformly within the religion

“The person must be informed that deliberately making a false statement orally or in writing can involve criminal charges. In an employment setting, deliberately making a false oral or written statement may also involve disciplinary actions and dismissal from employment. In a school setting, deliberately making a false oral or written statement may incur dismissal from the school,” according to the bar association.

There are different immunization exemption forms to fill out depending on the school, the Education Law Center said.

Adalja said he believes the religious and philosophical exemptions are part of weakening vaccine requirements across the country. Not all states offer the philosophical exemption, so Pennsylvania is more lax in that way.

“I think there is room for Pennsylvania to improve its vaccination policies by eliminating both, but I don’t see that happening in this environment — even with Democrats controlling the house and the governorship,” he said.

A philosophical exemption can mean a plethora of different things, allowing for those who are anti-vaccines “to get whatever they want,” Adalja said.

Because of these, he said Pennsylvania is facing a problem with vaccination rates slipping. And the rhetoric coming out of Florida isn’t helping.

“The fact that they’ve enunciated this and used such bombastic language … that’s just going to make it so much harder for anybody trying to increase vaccination rates in Florida students,” Adalja said, calling it posturing. “The more they talk about it the more rhetoric there is … It’s going to get worse before it gets better I suspect.”

Immunization rates

Pennsylvania is one of the states that has all of its schools’ self-report immunization data, according to the commonwealth, which contribute to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

The Pennsylvania School Immunization Law Report shows the overall immunization status of students enrolled in all public and private schools throughout the state.

As of the 2024-25 school year in Pennsylvania, there are 6,506 kindergarteners out of 133,512 — or 4.87% — who either have medical, religious or philosophical exemptions for vaccines, according to the report system.

For seventh grade, 10,056 students out of 149,108 — or 6.74% — have exemptions, and for 12th grade, 8,621 students out of 149,556 — or 5.76% — have exemptions.

Specific county data for vaccine exemptions for 2024-25 is as follows:

Allegheny County kindergarteners — 500 out of 12,217, or 4.1% Allegheny County seventh graders — 492 out of 11,891, or 4.14% Allegheny County 12th graders — 774 out of 12,321, or 6.04% Westmoreland County kindergarteners — 240 out of 3,270, or 7.34% Westmoreland County seventh graders — 324 out of 3,589, or 9.03% Westmoreland County 12th graders — 365 out of 3,741, or 9.76%

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---