Prohibiting certain actions by the Department of Health Services related to the immunization program

What it would have done

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Under current law, the Department of Health Services is required to carry out a statewide immunization program. As part of the program, students in elementary, middle, junior, or senior high school or in child care centers or nursery schools are required to present written evidence of compliance with vaccination requirements based upon their grade level. Current law specifies a number of diseases for which vaccines are required under the program, but also allows DHS to specify other diseases by administrative rule. Under current administrative rules, additional diseases that DHS has specified include varicella, commonly known as chicken pox, and meningococcal disease (meningitis). Current law provides that if an emergency arises, consisting of a substantial outbreak, as determined by DHS by administrative rule, of one of these diseases at a school or in the municipality in which the school is located, DHS may order the school to exclude students who are not immunized until the outbreak subsides.

This bill prohibits DHS from taking any of the following actions related to the statewide immunization program: 1) requiring immunization against any disease, including meningitis, under the program that was not specified by rule prior to January 1, 2023, or 2) including varicella in its definition of what constitutes a substantial outbreak of a disease. The bill also requires DHS to allow an exemption from the varicella vaccine requirement if a parent or adult student reports that the student has a history of varicella disease.

Who's behind it

The official record doesn't name its authors.