Son has no vaccine up to this point. We are able to waive it for personal reasons. We don’t know if we can do it for college. Any advice?
Contact the college and ask them. It’s likely policies vary by school so…contact your kid’s college and ask.
Most colleges will not let a student waive the meningitis vaccine if they are to live in the dorms.
You will need to investigate this separately with each college/university on your child’s application list. Many will only allow waivers in very limited medical situations.
Great input from Thumper and Greenwitch.
Definitely check with the colleges. This link maybe a start
http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/school-immunization-exemption-state-laws.aspx
As a person who has suffered life-long consequences of measles, I sincerely hope that your child goes to a different college than mine.
Your son is an adult now, so decisions about vaccination should be his, not yours. His views on vaccination may differ from yours. Perhaps he would like to be protected against infectious diseases, which circulate very freely in crowded college dorm environments.
Back in the year when the H1N1 flu swept the country, my daughter was a college student. Many students at her college became ill and two died. As soon as the vaccine became available, they were delighted to get it.
if student is interested in health care curriculum, not being vaccinated can make this complicated to work in Hospitals or other Health care facilities.
Those facilities may require clinical workers / students to be vaccinated as a matter of institutional policy as opposed to a state law policy.
Why in the world wouldn’t you want your child to be vaccinated against potentially fatal diseases?
The child of a good friend has something called Primary Immunodeficiency. She has no immune system. If she were to encounter one of these so-called “benign” illnesses which your son is now susceptible to, she would probably die.
Good point @learninginprog, my D who was a nursing student could not begin classes without all her vaccines, Hep A and B, TB skin test, and a yearly flu shot. They don’t mess around!
Both of my kids, in two different states, had vaccination requirements that could not be waived. In florida, it is very difficult to waive for any school or public activity (going to the rec center, playing little league). At Wyoming, the requirements were not for the meningitis vaccine but for MMR. Since many of their students come from Colorado and in Colorado waivers are easy and common (as is getting whooping cough!), they are rather strict on the waivers (medical reasons only).
If your child has never been to camps or other situations with lots of other germy peers, you might wants to reconsider vaccinations anyway. Colleges have students from all over the world, with bugs from all over the world. You just don’t know what your child will be exposed to. Measles as a 20 year old? Not fun.
Seems like a fairly simple problem to solve:
- He should get any vaccinations that he has missed, unless there is a specific medical reason not to get them, and keep records of such.
- For those which he cannot get due to specific medical reasons, he should find out what documentation on the medical reasons the college needs to see.
Don’t some students have waivers due to religious reasons? Not sure what the schools would do. I believe one of my kid’s colleges required immunizations for all who were living in the dorm. No exceptions.
But maybe they waive the immunization requirement and require you to live off campus.
Again…no way to know…check with the colleges. I am quite sure they will be able to tell you their policy.
I remember when S was going to college. He had to do the MMR (I think) again because he was given one of the sequence of shots 3 days before his birthday.
Here’s another parent who wonders why you wouldn’t have your kid get vaccinated.
My son’s private school required up to date immunization and even suggested some that weren’t required.
My dd’s public uni in New York required a completed health form with copies of the immunization card.
My dd2’s school required records to be input into the online health form.
I agree with the posters who wonder why you wouldn’t want your adult son to be immunized. Hasn’t he passed all of the childhood illness ages?
As someone who has a very suppressed immune system and relies on herd immunity to stay alive, I hope the answer is no.
Also, keep in mind…if this student wants to do a study abroad in say…South Africa or places in South America and Asia, he will be required to have immunizations to travel to these places…no waiver possible.
Add me to the choir…what is your worry about having your kiddo immunized?
There are actually very few valid religious objections to vaccines. Most exemptions are “personal” reasons as in the case of OP.
I sincerely hope most colleges don’t allow waivers except for medical reasons. I like to believe that a college that teaches any classes in science or critical thinking would reject personal objections to vaccines.
This article lists all the major religions and their lack of objection to vaccines.
https://www.whyimmunize.org/what-religions-actually-state-about-vaccines/
I’m guessing the parent refused vaccines for their child based on religious or personal objections. Parents involved in the anti vaccine movement have college aged kids as well as young children.
In Wisconsin we can waive the vaccine requirements for religious reason or personal reason. We had no problems with schools and camps so far. We might need only the meningitis vaccine and waive others based off the info from the college website.
I know it is a controversial topic here. I will do what is the best for son.