Texas House votes to make it easier for parents to reject school vaccine requirements

AUSTIN – It will be easier than ever for parents to opt their children out of public school vaccine requirements under a bill passed in the Texas House Wednesday.

The bill from Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, would allow anyone to access and download the form needed to exempt children from public school vaccine requirements that include polio, hepatitis A and B and measles.

Currently, parents must request a vaccine exemption form from the state for a reason of conscience, including religious beliefs. They then must get the form notarized before submitting it to their school district.

Hull’s bill would eliminate the need to request the form from the government. The Department of State Health Services would instead provide a downloadable copy of the form on its website. And the state health department would remove a seal that prevents the form from being copied and distributed by the public.

Hull has said her proposal increases government efficiency and saves the state government about $177,000 a year in postage and labor it would have spent distributing the form to requestors. Vaccine advocates worry that it will further erode confidence in safe vaccines and create public health risks for children who cannot take vaccines because of preexisting health conditions.

Other advocates worry that the move could lead to outbreaks of contagious diseases that could have been thwarted by child immunizations.

During debate Tuesday, Hull worked to steer the conversation away from what critics believe will be the unintended consequences of the proposal. She questioned the relevance of questions related to the ongoing measles outbreak or vaccines in general.

“This bill is about where a form is printed,” Hull said Tuesday on multiple occasions.

Democrats offered several amendments to the bill, including changes that would have required school districts to report the immunization rates of their schools and had parents read educational information about vaccines before opting their children out of vaccine requirements. Both were defeated largely along partisan lines.

“While this bill is about a form, the cause and effect, the consequences of this bill will be more kids opting out of immunization, more kids opting out of vaccines,” Rep. John Bucy III, D-Austin, said Tuesday.

The bill passed 83-54. It now heads to the Senate. It will head to the governor’s desk if passed in that chamber.

The bill’s approval comes as the state has seen an outbreak of 717 measles cases this year. The Department of State Health Services confirmed Tuesday that two cases in Collin and Rockwall counties are connected to an outbreak of the highly contagious virus in West Texas. Two children have died.