Individual school districts determine what paperwork is required to exempt a student from a vaccine. That can lead to inconsistent policies across county lines, according to Becky Ludwick, vice president of public policy at Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, a nonprofit children’s advocacy organization that recently published a report about declining MMR vaccinations in Pennsylvania.
“You have schools [that] are responsible for deciding what sort of documentation or paperwork is needed for exemptions,” Ludwick said. “Some may be just checking a box. And that’s somewhat of a low threshold.”
A student can also be exempt from a required vaccine on medical grounds, though the rate of medical exemptions over the last five years has remained steady. Religious exemptions account for the largest share of total exemptions.