Two important bills in California that affect your exemption rights to vaccination and your parental rights

Take action now to protect your rights!

If you would like a copy of this information emailed to you, please send us a message with your contact information and we will forward a copy to you and your family for further review. 

Please contact our office if you have specific questions regarding vaccinations that you would like to discuss with Dr. Karpfinger or Dr. Rosselle

________________________________________________________

We wanted to give you a follow-up on two important bills in California that affect your exemption rights to vaccination andyour parental rights. AB 2109 passed last year and AB 599 died in the Assembly Health Committee on April 16, 2013.

AB 2109:

AB2109 is a bill that was signed into law by Governor Brown on Sept. 30, 2012. The new law mandates new requirementsfor parent who choose to exempt their child from vaccine requirements for school. Beginning Jan. 1, 2014 personal beliefexemptions will have to be signed by a health care practitioner. (1)We are hearing from an increasing number of parents who are being told by the school that they must get an additionalsignature on their personal beliefs exemption, required by the passage of AB 2109, NOW in order to register their child forschool. This is NOT TRUE.

If you are told by a school official that you need to have your personal belief exemption signed by a health care practitionerbefore your child can be registered for school, you should inform the person giving you that information that the law doesnot go into effect until Jan. 1, 2014 and that they must accept your exemption. Links to the final law and current exemptioninformation are posted below; see #1 and #3 at the end of this announcement.

You should also contact your state legislators and Governor Brown’s Office. Tell your legislators and Governor Brown’sOffice what is going on and ask them where parents can get information about, or a copy of, the new exemption form thatincludes the religious exemption Governor Brown directed the health department to include in the new form.

If you log in to the NVIC Advocacy Portal at www.nvicadvocacy.org your legislators are displayed on the right side. Youcan click on their names to open up their contact information.

The person to contact in Governor Brown’s Office is Lark Park - lark.park@gov.ca.gov
Please send a copy of your correspondence with legislators and Governor Brown’s Office to -cadirector@nvicadvocacy.org - NVIC California State Directors Maria.Volk@cdph.ca.gov - Acting Branch Chief, CA Dept. of Health, Immunization BranchJohn.Reichel@cdph.ca.gov - Staff member compiling the list of stakeholders to be notified of the draft form AB 599:

Parents need to be aware that their girls and boys ages 12 and older can be vaccinated for a sexually transmitted diseasewithout their knowledge or consent because AB 599 died in committee. This includes HPV Vaccines (Gardasil andCervarix), Hepatitis B Vaccine and any other vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease that is approved in the future.

The Facts on AB 2109:

AB 2109 was sponsored by Assembly Member Pan and signed by Governor Brown on Sept. 30, 2012.However, the new law does not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2014. 

(1)Governor Brown directed the Dept. of Public Health to allow for a separate religious exemption on the form thatdoes not require the signature of a health care practitioner. He also directed the Dept. of public health tooversee the new policy “so parents are not overly burdened in its implementation.” 

(2)Parents can still exempt their children from any or all vaccines required for school, including the TDaP boosterfor 7th grade, for personal beliefs by either using the current exemption form or by writing a writtenstatement. They do not need an additional signature until Jan. 1, 2014. 

(3)Medical belief exemptions are still available and are not changed by AB 2109.

The new form has not been issued yet. The law requires the State Dept. of Public Health to create a new form,on or before Jan. 1, 2014.

When the new law does goes into effect, a personal belief exemption will have to be signed by one of thefollowing; a physician, surgeon, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, osteopathic physician or surgeon,naturopathic doctor who is authorized to furnish or order drugs under a physician and surgeon's supervision or acredentialed school nurse.

The health care practitioner must provide the parent with information regarding the benefits and risks of theimmunization and the health risks of the communicable diseases to the person and to the community and sign astatement saying they provided the information.

The parent will also have to sign indicating that the signer has received the information provided by the healthcare practitioner.

The facts on AB 599:

AB 599 was sponsored by Assembly Member Tim Donnelly. AB 599 would have required parental consentbefore a minor child 12 years or older could be vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease. This wouldinclude HPV Vaccines (Gardasil or Cervarix), Hepatitis B Vaccine and any other vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease that is approved in the future.This bill was needed because AB 499 that passed into law in 2011 allows children 12 years old and older to be vaccinated for sexually transmitted diseases without their parent’s knowledge or consent. 

AB 499 wassponsored by Assembly Member Toni Atkins.

AB 599 died in the Assembly Health Committee on April 16, 2013 with of vote of 5 yes, 13 no and one absentor not voting. 

(4)School Based Health Centers can provide vaccinations. 

(5)There are 200 School Based Health Centers in CA with about 45 more in the works. 

(6) (7)(1)- http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_2101-2150/ab_2109_bill_20120930_chaptered.html - text of AB 2109,chaptered law

(2) – http://gov.ca.gov/docs/AB_2109_Signing_Message.pdf - Governor Brown’s signing message, AB 2109, Sept. 30,2012.
(3) - http://www.nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state-vaccine-requirements/california.aspx - immunization and exemptioninformation and forms
(4) - http://www.legislature.ca.gov/port-bilinfo.html - Voting YES - Logue, Maienschein, Mansoor, Nestande, Wilk. VotingNO - Ammiano, Atkins, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Chesbro, Gomez, Roger Hernández, Mitchell, Nazarian, Pan, V.Manuel Pérez, Wieckowski . No Votes Recorded - Wagner
(5) -http://www.schoolhealthcenters.org/healthlearning/immunization/immunizationresources/hp/ - School Based HealthCenters, HPV information
(6) – http://www.schoolhealthcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Overview-SBHCs.pdf - School Based HealthCenters and the services they provide
(7) - http://www.schoolhealthcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/sbhcs-as-of-8-10-12.pdf - list of School Based HealthCenters in California

Sincerely,

Dawn Winkler and Michelle Gutierrez

California State Advocacy Team Co-Directors National Vaccine Information Centerhttp://NVIC.org andhttp://NVICAdvocacy.org CADirector@nivcadvocacy.org
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacyaction alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in theiroriginal form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originatorsof this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately,register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service byNVIC.