What If My Ex Doesn’t Want My Child Vaccinated?
Vaccination or immunization is a hot and divisive topic right now. The prevailing opinion is still that vaccinations should be given to children however, there is a recently increasing trend to not vaccinate. In November of 2018 in Asheville, North Carolina, a private school experienced the largest chickenpox outbreak since the vaccine for the virus became available in 1995. Thirty-six (36) children of the school’s total population of one hundred and fifty-two (152) were infected. Of those one hundred and fifty-two (152) students, one hundred and ten (110) had not received the chickenpox vaccine. The county in which the school is located has a 5.7% religious exemption rate for vaccinations among kindergarteners, which was the highest in the state of North Carolina for the 2017-2018 school year. Many people attribute outbreaks of this nature to the new trend to not vaccinate children. Vaccinations are federally regulated for public schooling, however, there are 45 states that offer religious exemptions and 15 that offer philosophical exemptions.
The North Carolina General Statutes provides a list of diseases that every child shall be immunized against. A few of the common diseases on that list that we are all familiar with include chickenpox, measles, whooping cough, etc. It also names who is responsible to ensure that a child receives the proper immunizations. This can include the parent, guardian, person or agency, whether governmental or private. They hold the full responsibility of ensuring that their child receives the required immunizations at the proper age. You can read the full text of the statute by clicking here.
What are the possible exemptions to the federally required vaccinations?
There are many reasons that people choose not to get vaccinations. These opinions are gathered from blogs, doctors, other parents, or people who claim their children had adverse reactions to vaccinations. Whatever your personal reasons, there are only two legal exemptions in the state of North Carolina. These are the medical and religious exemptions. North Carolina does not offer an exemption based upon the philosophical beliefs of the parent.
Medical Exemption
To be eligible for the medical exemption, you need a doctor licensed to practice in North Carolina to certify that receiving a vaccine, or all vaccines will be detrimental to your child’s health. You can click here to read the full statute. Additionally, you may click here to access the Medical Exemption Form that a doctor would need to fill out for your child to be exempted from the federal requirement.
Religious Exemption
If getting a vaccination is contradictory to your religious beliefs, you are not required to get a vaccine. There is no direct form to fill out. For more specific directions on how to receive religious exemption click here.
Who has the ability to decide if my child gets vaccinated?
Before you drown yourself in tons of research proving your stance on vaccination and filling out the exemption paperwork, the first thing you need to figure out is what kind of custody do you have of your child? This is when you have to pull out that important document your attorney told you to put in a safe place. Your Custody Order! This will include who has both physical and legal custody of your child.
Physical Custody: This is who the child physically lives with and would likely include any visitation schedules as well.
Legal Custody: The parent with legal custody is the parent who the court has given the right to make the important life decisions for the child. This can include decisions concerning religious training, health care, and education. A custody order can give primary, shared, or joint legal custody to the parties. This will determine who has the decision-making power over your child’s vaccination.
If you or the other parent has sole legal custody, this means that the decisions made do not have to be approved by the other parent. If I am a parent who believes in vaccinations, that means I am able to take the kid and get vaccinated.
If both parents have joint legal custody that means that each party has equal decision-making power. Although the child may stay with one parent more than the other. Parents must typically discuss in advance any major issues they disagree on when it comes to raising the child. However, a pro-vaccine parent may be able to take their child and get them vaccinated without knowledge or permission from the other parent. An order can also layout procedures for disagreements between the parties, such as the parties going to binding arbitration, and the arbitrator will hear arguments and decide.
Less common is a shared legal custody scenario in which the court will award specific aspects of the decision-making ability to either party. In which case it would depend on who the court had given final decision-making power over health care decisions.
Unless you have sole legal custody or final decision-making power, communication is going to be the most important aspect if you do not want your child to be vaccinated. You will really need to convince the other parent that not vaccinating is the right decision. Bringing in outside parties such as a judge or an arbitrator could be risky if you are against vaccinations as that is not the dominant opinion. If you would like to speak with an attorney about your child custody order, give our office a call at 980-225-1832 to set up a low-cost consultation.
