By Meghan Mangrum
The Dallas Morning News
Texas schools can’t require students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine despite a new recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott told Texas’ education commissioner Mike Morath and school superintendents that the vaccine — recently added to the CDC’s list of recommended childhood immunizations — cannot be mandated for students to attend school.
“Despite attempts at federal overreach into the health care decisions of Americans, in Texas we continue to honor and defend the freedom of parents to choose what is best for the health and well-being of their families,” Abbott wrote in a letter to school officials. “Regardless of what the CDC may suggest, in Texas, the COVID-19 vaccine remains voluntary. Texas schools shall not require students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for any reason.”
In August 2021, Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting vaccine mandates by government entities in Texas, which also allows parents to opt-out of the COVID-19 vaccine for their children.
Last month, after a CDC panel first moved to recommend the vaccine for children, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined 13 other state attorneys general and urged the committee to not add the vaccine to its list of recommended childhood immunizations.
The panel’s decision, which has since been adopted by the CDC director, formally adds the shot to a list often used by schools and health officials in making vaccination requirements.
But in a letter addressed to the CDC’s advisory committee and its director, the attorneys general argued that “children are at little risk of death from COVID-19″ and that little is known about the vaccine’s effectiveness.
Requiring COVID-19 vaccines for children could “undoubtedly accelerate a rejection by many American families of more traditional vaccinations due to the CDC’s increasingly sullied credibility,” the letter read.
Each state has the authority to set vaccination requirements for its schoolchildren as well as opt-out provisions. Texas officials made it clear throughout the pandemic that COVID-19 vaccine mandates would be unlikely.
In October 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott also issued an executive order cracking down on such mandates and banning any entity in Texas, including private businesses, from requiring vaccinations for employees or customers.
Abbott had called on lawmakers to pass a bill with the same effect during a special legislative session last year. After it failed to pass in the Legislature, Republicans instead challenged federal vaccine requirements in court.
What vaccines are required to attend school in Texas?
Prior to starting kindergarten, Texas students must receive multiple vaccines under state law. The Texas Department of Health and Human Services requires students to be fully immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps and rubella, hepatitis A and chickenpox.
Boosters and additional vaccines, such as hepatitis B and the meningococcal, or meningitis, vaccines are also required as students age.
But Texas law allows for medical, religious or “reasons of conscience” exemptions.
Every year, school districts hustle to ensure students’ vaccination records are up to date in time for the start of the school year. Exemptions must be documented.
Many children still getting vaccinated
Some have worried that increasing pressure from families over “parental rights” would lead to an uptick in students requesting exemptions, especially as immunization rates nationwide dipped during the pandemic.
A September 2020 state report on the Texas Vaccines for Children program, which provides low-cost vaccines to eligible children, outlined steep declines in immunizations. More recent data from the Department of Health and Human Services indicate that about 93% of Texas kindergarteners were up to date on required immunizations during the 2021-22 school year.
Still, those seeking religious exemptions climbed about half a percentage point with some school districts in North Texas suburbs, near Austin and San Antonio, and Amarillo reporting more than 3% of students seeking such exemptions.
Regardless of whether the COVID-19 vaccination is required, nearly 50% of parents are willing to get the COVID-19 vaccine for their children, according to an August poll from The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler.
As of Oct. 25, about 2.6 million Texas children ages 6 months to 15 years old have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to state data.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks,Todd A. Williams Family Foundation and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
