{"id":2660632,"date":"2026-09-14T07:57:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignwant-a-vaccine-waiver-in-michigan-you-must-first-get-lectured-on-how-great-vaccines-are\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T08:01:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:01:05","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignwant-a-vaccine-waiver-in-michigan-you-must-first-get-lectured-on-how-great-vaccines-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignwant-a-vaccine-waiver-in-michigan-you-must-first-get-lectured-on-how-great-vaccines-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Jab Opt-Out Policy Makes Parents Take Pro-Vax Course"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignwant-a-vaccine-waiver-in-michigan-you-must-first-get-lectured-on-how-great-vaccines-are%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2660632&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Parents in Michigan seeking a nonmedical vaccine exemption for their children must complete an online course designed by a university professor and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fairfax-schools-investigates-staff-arranged-student-abortions-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Fairfax schools investigates staff-arranged student abortions - Washington Examiner\">public health nurses<\/a>. The course begins with a pre-assessment where parents respond to statements about vaccine safety,importance,and effectiveness on a five-point scale,with the aim of measuring attitude change. However, critics argue that the process effectively forces parents to agree with vaccine safety and efficacy, raising concerns about compelled speech and privacy, as the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >data collected lacks clear protection<\/a> and transparency.<\/p>\n<p>Legally, Michigan&#8217;s law requires only a written statement of religious or other objections for exemptions, without specifying the form or method of submission. Yet, current practice and state rules have evolved to include an education component that is not mandated by statute, effectively imposing more burdens on parents than the law requires. This shift began around 2014, as the health department introduced rules that made exemptions harder to obtain, often by requiring parents to undergo education rather than just submit a written statement.<\/p>\n<p>Proposed legislative bills to clarify or limit these requirements have repeatedly failed, and current rule enforcement exceeds the original statutory authority. Experts suggest that rescinding the educational rules and reverting to the original law would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/youngkin-orders-virginia-equity-office-to-instead-focus-on-education-abortion\/\" title=\"Youngkin Orders Virginia \u2018Equity\u2019 Office To Instead Focus on ..., Abortion\">restore parental rights<\/a>. At minimum, reforms should include allowing parents to decline answers, clarifying privacy protections, and maintaining in-person alternatives. The core issue is whether the state can condition a legal exemption on a declaration of belief, or whether it should simply accept a written statement as the law prescribes.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Parents across Michigan who want a nonmedical vaccine waiver for a child to attend school must now complete an online course before the local health department will certify the exemption. The course \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/public-health\/vaccinations-school-vaccine-waivers-michigan-measles-covid-lockdowns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">built for the state<\/a> by Michael Rubyan, a University of Michigan professor, and roughly 40 public health nurses \u2014 opens with a pre-training assessment. Before a parent has been shown a single slide, video, or fact, three statements appear:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>I think vaccines are safe.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>I think vaccines are important for children to have.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>I think vaccines are effective.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Each is answered on a five-point scale: strongly agree, tend to agree, tend to disagree, strongly disagree, do not know. At the end of the course, a post-training assessment asks all three again. What the course measures as learning is indistinguishable from agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Officials might point out that \u201cdo not know\u201d is available, but that isn\u2019t a refusal. It is a claim about one\u2019s own state of knowledge, recorded as data. There is no \u201cthat is not the state\u2019s business\u201d button, and no explanation of where the answers go or who reviews them. The only privacy policy apparently available to parents is the county health agency\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/bhsj.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Notice-of-Privacy-Practices10.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">HIPAA notice<\/a>, which nowhere mentions the waiver process, the course, or attitudinal data.<\/p>\n<p>A parent can see the compelled-speech problem without a lawyer\u2019s help. But Michigan needn\u2019t reach a constitutional question, because the rule the state is enforcing never authorized this in the first place.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What the Law Says, and What the Course Says the Law Says<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Michigan\u2019s vaccine exemption is both statutory and old. Under <a href=\"https:\/\/legislature.mi.gov\/Laws\/MCL?objectName=MCL-333-9215\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MCL 333.9215(2)<\/a>, a child is exempt if a parent \u201cpresents a written statement to the administrator of the child\u2019s school \u2026 to the effect that the requirements of this part cannot be met because of religious convictions or other objection to immunization.\u201d That is the whole test: a written statement, to the school. The legislature wrote \u201cor other objection\u201d deliberately, declining to ask what the objection is, whether it\u2019s sincere, or whether it\u2019s any good.<\/p>\n<p>Now, here is question two of the module\u2019s first graded section:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Maria is a parent in Michigan who wants to obtain a non-medical vaccine waiver for her child for religious reasons. To get a valid waiver in Michigan, Maria needs to:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2014 Ask her family doctor for a letter granting the waiver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2014 Ask a religious leader for a letter granting the waiver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2014 Attend a vaccine education session and get a waiver from the local health department<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u2014 Fill out and sign a waiver form at home and send it to the school<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The third option is the \u201ccorrect\u201d choice. But the fourth describes what the 1978 statute actually requires. The administrative gloss has so thoroughly displaced the statute that the state now teaches parents the statutory text is the <em>wrong<\/em> answer. Current practice has drifted far enough from the statute that the statute now reads as a distractor option.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How the Drift Happened<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In 2014, with waiver rates <a href=\"https:\/\/publications.aap.org\/pediatrics\/article-abstract\/148\/3\/e2021049942\/181058\/Evaluating-Michigan-s-Administrative-Rule-Change?redirectedFrom=fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">climbing<\/a>, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) added rule <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigan.gov\/mdhhs\/-\/media\/Project\/Websites\/mdhhs\/Adult-and-Childrens-Services\/Children-and-Families\/Immunization-Information\/Immunization-Waivers\/R-325171-to-R-325199-(1).pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">R 325.176(12)<\/a>. The rule states that \u201ceach nonmedical exemption\u201d \u201cshall be certified by the local health department that the individual received education on the risks of not receiving the vaccines being waived and the benefits of vaccination to the individual and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The performer of that duty is the health department, but the sentence assigns the parent nothing, and it prescribes no method of certification. MDHHS said as much in its own rulemaking file, anticipating that departments would provide education \u201cusing a variety of methods based on local needs.\u201d At least one Michigan county health department has since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganvaccinechoice.org\/single-post\/mdhhs-promulgated-rule-has-led-to-widespread-misinterpretation-of-laws-surrounding-exemption-for-vac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argued the rule was misread from the start<\/a>, and that simply mailing the required education to the parent would satisfy it.<\/p>\n<p>But grant the state its strongest counterargument. Say that certifying a parent \u201creceived\u201d education implies confirmable delivery. That would mean a parent must receive information and acknowledge receiving it. It does not get you within a hundred miles of a graded course with an attitude survey at both ends.<\/p>\n<p>The rule was never primarily about educating anyone, however. MDHHS worried in its rulemaking file that \u201cthe ease of obtaining a non-medical exemption has been associated with an increased number of vaccine exemptions,\u201d and so it built the rule to make exemptions harder. Suzanne Waltman of Michigan for Vaccine Choice, who learned of the rule the day it took effect, called it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/health\/stealth-move-michigan-refines-vaccine-waivers-improves-rate-among-kids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201ca stealth move.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nor has the education changed many minds on the issue of vaccines. <a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/public-health\/vaccinations-school-vaccine-waivers-michigan-measles-covid-lockdowns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Juan Marquez<\/a>, medical director for Livingston and Washtenaw counties, estimated that of roughly 10,000 waivers his two counties issued over 10 years, the in-person sessions that preceded the online course \u201cchanged the minds of maybe one or two people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Twice since 2014, lawmakers have been asked to write the requirement into the statute, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legislature.mi.gov\/documents\/2015-2016\/billintroduced\/House\/htm\/2016-HIB-5361.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in 2016<\/a> and again <a href=\"https:\/\/legislature.mi.gov\/documents\/2023-2024\/billintroduced\/House\/htm\/2024-HIB-6205.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in 2024<\/a>. Both bills died. So, the agency is enforcing by rule precisely what the legislature has declined to enact by statute, twice.<\/p>\n<p>A third bill, <a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/MI\/text\/HB4552\/2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">House Bill 4552<\/a>, introduced in June 2025 by 11 Republicans, would strip the department of any power to add requirements beyond the statute\u2019s, and bar local health departments from demanding their own forms. It has sat without a hearing for nearly 15 months.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What Should Change<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The simplest remedy is to rescind the 2014 rule and fall back on the 1978 statute. Short of that, enforce the rule as written: The department provides the education, the department certifies, and the parent is asked nothing.<\/p>\n<p>If the module stays, three changes are the minimum. Give every attitudinal item an explicit option to decline to answer, so comprehension can be verified without compelled assent. Publish a privacy notice specific to the course before a parent answers the first question. And preserve a genuine in-person alternative in every county.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing here turns on the merits of vaccination. The question is whether a state agency may condition a statutory right on a declaration of belief, and whether it owes an account of what it does with the data it compels.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands a father who wants his daughter in school must first tell the state, on a five-point scale, what he thinks about vaccine safety. He may answer however he likes, but he may not decline to answer. And he will answer. His daughter needs the waiver, and no principle is worth a year of her childhood. He will click something, the state will record it, and later in the week he will have stopped thinking about it.<\/p>\n<p>But the statute he is seeking to comply with only asks him for a written statement. It has never asked what he believes.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Christopher Lloyd Goffos is a former school headmaster, ABD in politics, and writes from Hillsdale, Michigan, where he lives with his wife and children.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michigan parents must complete an online course for vaccine waivers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4412,"featured_media":2660633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-09-11T182007.498.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[85613,4601,5007,85614,63576],"class_list":["post-2660632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-jab-opt-out","tag-michigan","tag-parents","tag-pro-vax-course","tag-vaccine-policy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-09-11T182007.498.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2660632"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2660639,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660632\/revisions\/2660639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2660633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2660632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2660632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2660632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}