Standing on Solid Ground for Vaccine Choice
Updated: Sep 20
When important issues begin to shift and swirl around you, do you know what lies below your feet? Is it shifting and sinking sand or a steady rock? You are your child’s best advocate to all things vaccine choice. Do you know the laws surrounding vaccines for daycare, school, college and work? There are privacy laws and laws required for disclosure of your personal health information that must be followed. In the article below you will learn about:
In our current culture, we hear the warning "your data/information/password/etc. has been compromised" quite often from banks, cloud services, and different service providers. Generally, the provider gives you steps to take to ensure that you can recover some semblance of privacy and get some sort of assurance that they are working hard to get things back to normal.
But what if the compromise was coming from a state agency that is supposed to help protect you? Further, what if they were violating your privacy and your rights in plain sight, without any sort of acknowledgement or disclosure and completely without your consent? What if we told you it's happening every day to people who are seeking a vaccination exemption at their local health department?
In the state of Michigan we have three vaccination exemptions: medical, religious, and other which is personal or philosophical. You can find more information on the specific laws for vaccine exemption here .
Michigan Law states that a parent or guardian who objects to vaccination may give a written statement to the administrators of the child’s school, exempting them from vaccine requirements. That written statement becomes a part of the child's student record. This record is protected by federal law from being shared without written affirmative consent from the parent.
Parents can still try to give their own written statement or use the alternative statement provided here or on the Michigan for vaccine choice website. However, most schools will probably tell you that you need a certified copy of the waiver from the health department. You have a right to demand that your school adhere to Michigan law, allowing the submission with your written statement.
In 2015, the Michigan department of health and human services promulgated a rule that added steps to the exemption process.
Parents are now required to attend an educational session at the local health department to obtain a certified waiver.
Prior to this point in time, the health department just required the schools to violate federal law and disclose your child's vaccinations status without your knowledge or consent. Which is why they promulgated the rule for the session.
They still want access to your child's data, but once they were caught violating federal law, they had to adjust their process. During the exemption “education” visit, the LHD would make and keep a copy of the exemption statement at the local health department. It was unknown how these records were being recorded or stored.
In 2023, MDHHS rolled out a new digital process. According to the local health departments, this eliminated the paper exemptions that were certified. Instead, parents have been required to sign a digital form which is then uploaded directly into the state's vaccination tracking database, known as Michigan care improvement registry or MCIR. This digital process is an illegal use of the MCIR, because MDHHS does not have statutory authority to upload or store the exemptions directly into the database. Additionally, this process is done without the knowledge and consent of parents, when the statute defines that consent and disclosures to privacy must be defined. Many of the local health departments attempt to get parents to sign a HIPAA release. However, this is problematic as these visits to the health department for the sole purpose of obtaining a waiver does not constitute a doctor-patient relationship. Thus, yours and your child’s private information is being collected and stored without your knowledge and consent, which is illegal.
What can you do?
Hand in your own statement to your school, You can find the form here.
Opt out of MCIR. OptOutForm.pdf (mcir.org).
When you opt out of MCIR, you can email the form directly to the email address on the form. You can do so without your MCIR number, as the regional office already has this information. Additionally, you should ask for a confirmation of the receipt of your email and a confirmation of when your child has been removed from the system.
Once you opt out of MCIR you can notify your child's school (email or certified mail) that your child is opted out of MCIR. And under no circumstances do you give your permission for your child to be added back into the registry.
Confirm that your school is following federal law by providing an annual FERPA and PPRA notice. FERPA is the family educational records privacy act. It is federal law that protects your child's educational record from improper disclosures. This includes your child's vaccine record and or exemption status. PPRA is the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which governs the administration to students of a survey, analysis, or evaluation that concerns one or more of the eight protected areas
Annual notice for FERPA and PPRA is usually part of the back to school packet. However, with the implementation of the digital exemption process, we have had reports from multiple parents that the FERPA &/or PPRA disclosure or annual notice has not been given and isn't readily available on the website. If this information is missing there are a couple of things that you can and should do.
A) Send an email to your district superintendent and the principal of the school that your child attends.
Let them know they are violating federal law by not giving the annual for FERPA and or PPRA notice.
B) Go to the link below to file a complaint directly with the FERPA and/or PPRA office.
Every complaint is investigated. In your complaint file you can give the date of the notice that you gave your school.
We know that advocating can be difficult, stressful and overwhelming. It doesn't have to be! Michigan for Vaccine Choice will be covering the issues surrounding vaccine choice. Each week we have a Monday Spotlight on specific vaccines here on our website. Every month, we will highlight an issue about vaccine choice on our monthly newsletter, which will also be introduced as a blog here on our website. We want to partner with you, because here at Michigan for Vaccine Choice, we know that we are Stronger Together!
Still have questions? You can email: media@michiganvaccinechoice or visit our website: michiganvaccinechoice.org
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