Arizona law requires kids to receive certain vaccines in order to attend school unless a doctor signs a medical exemption form or a parent signs a religious or personal beliefs exemption form.  There has been an increasing number of parents who are signing exemption forms- putting herd immunity at risk in some parts of the state.  We updated the vaccine exemption forms this school year in order to make sure parents are aware of the importance and of vaccinating their kids and the consequences if they don’t.

The new form asks parents to initial and date after each exempted vaccine to indicate that they’ve been informed of the risks of the vaccine-preventable disease.  The form also makes it clear that if there’s an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease in a school and their child isn’t vaccinated, he or she may not be allowed to attend school for up to 3 weeks or until the risk period ends.