Vaccine Exemption Notification Passes the House onto the Senate

House Bill 133 the notification to parents of vaccine exemptions PASSED the House 52-17-1. A WIN for transparency today in the Idaho House! Many thanks to all the parents who emailed legislators about this important issue.

This bill was sponsored by Representative Priscilla Giddings. It will require all the school notify parents and guardians of the immunization exemption in the same manner parents are notified of the “requirement to immunize.”

Health Freedom Idaho receives dozens of messages each year from frantic parents who have received letters and phone calls from their children’s school regarding vaccination status. Parents are threatened and bullied by staff demanding parents get their child’s vaccines up-to-date within a certain timeframe under threat of exclusion from school. Most often the staff does not provide any disclosure of the availability of vaccine exemptions.

Health Freedom Idaho gathered a small sample of the correspondence provided by the parents that fails to disclose any option other than vaccination. Clearly, these forms of correspondence from the schools are designed to deceive and intimidate parents.

The problem? Signs like this sign seen posted on Feb 28,2019 at a Middle School in Payettee

And this flyer received by hundreds of parents in the Boise City school district the week of Feb 26th.

It is interesting that 3 Republicans voted with Democrats against informing parents of current Idaho law:

Rep. Wood – District 27
Rep. Kerby – District 9
Rep. Kauffman – District 25

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

Rep. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, spoke out in favor of the bill, HB 133, while also noting that her family owns and operates private schools and daycares.

“I have no problem with people immunizing their children. My children are immunized to an extent,” she 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…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 idea, 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.

AYES – Abernathy, Addis, Amador, Anderst, Andrus, Armstrong, Barbieri, Blanksma, Boyle, Chaney, Christensen, Clow, Collins, Crane, Dayley, DeMordaunt, Dixon, Ehardt, Ellis, Furniss, Gestrin, Gibbs, Giddings, Goesling, Green(2), Harris, Hartgen, Holtzclaw, Horman, Kingsley, Lickley, Marshall, Mendive, Monks, Moon, Moyle, Nichols, Palmer, Raymond, Ricks, Scott, Shepherd, Stevenson, Syme, Troy, Vander Woude, Wisniewski, Young, Youngblood, Zito, Zollinger, Mr. Speaker

NAYS – Berch, Chew, Davis, Erpelding, Gannon, Green(18), Kauffman, Kerby, Mason, McCrostie, Raybould, Rubel, Smith, Toone, Wagoner, Wintrow, Wood

Absent – Anderson
Floor Sponsor – Giddings

The bill now moves to the Senate side to be heard in the Health and Welfare Committee and if passed onto the Senate Floor.

We encourage all parents to send an email requesting that their legislator vote IN FAVOR of transparency and truth YES on H 133.

A shortcut to copy and paste email list for all Senators is here.

Here is the email blast list for the Senate. They are broken down into chunks so that your email will not get caught up in the spam filter. Duplicate your email and send it to each group.

GROUP 1

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