Idaho House backs immunization exemptions notification bill - Idaho State Journal

BOISE — The Idaho House voted 52-17 on Monday in favor of Rep. Priscilla Giddings’ immunization exemptions bill, which requires all schools and day care centers in Idaho, whenever they send notice to parents about immunizations required by state law, including enrollment forms, to also note that Idaho parents can exempt their kids from any or all of them.

Giddings said it’s “just a simple transparency bill.”

Idaho’s immunization opt-out rates are among the highest in the nation; the state allows parents to choose not to vaccinate their children for any reason. In the event of a disease outbreak, unvaccinated children could be excluded from class.

According to state figures from the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare, Idaho’s opt-out rate has been inching up in recent years, from 6.3 percent in 2015-16, to 6.4 percent the next year, and up to 6.9 percent in the most recent year for which figures are available, 2017-2018.

That year, 4,861 Idaho children in kindergarten, first grade and seventh grade, which are the grades that are tracked, were on exemptions.

Just 351 of those were listed as medical exemptions; all the rest were for either religious or other reasons cited by the parents. In 10 Idaho counties, immunization opt-out rates topped 10 percent; in Valley County, the opt-out rate was 19.5 percent; Bonner County, 23.8 percent.

Rep. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, spoke in favor of the bill, HB 133. She noted that her family owns and operates private schools and day cares, which would be covered by the bill along with public schools.

“I have no problem with people immunizing their children. My children are immunized to an extent,” Nichols said, “but I have gone through the rounds with my school district to provide this information … that the law does allow for an exemption. … It’s something we should be notified about.”

Nichols told the House, “This information has never been on any of the forms in my school district, so it seems to me that the information is not transparent to any parent that has their children in school. … For transparency purposes, I believe that it should be included on the forms.”

Rep. John Green, R-Post Falls, said he was “at a loss to understand how anybody could object” to the bill, but said he heard during the bill’s committee hearing that some groups hoped parents wouldn’t take advantage of the exemptions, which he called “appalling.”

“We have got to stand up as a Legislature and make sure that parents understand the law, and certainly we can’t contribute to hiding the law by any means,” Green declared.

Giddings said, “We have a lot of frustrated parents throughout the state who feel like they’ve just maybe been misinformed about it. I think we should make sure that the parents have all the information when it comes to immunizing their children.”

Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, was the only House member to speak against the bill. He objected to the idea of forcing private school owners to admit unvaccinated kids if they’d rather not, but acknowledged the bill didn’t change that.

Giddings told the House, “I know there’s a lot of Idaho moms and dads out there that will be very thankful if you support this.”

In the 52-17 vote, all House Democrats voted against the bill, joined by five Republicans; all the “yes” votes on the bill came from Republicans.

To become law, the bill still would need Senate passage and the governor’s signature.

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