The board overseeing charter schools in West Virginia plans to officially express support for religious exemptions to mandatory school vaccinations in a state Supreme Court review.
“I think it’s, from a religious liberty point of view, a valuable thing for us to do, and that we have unique information about how vaccine exemptions for religious reasons have played out in our charter schools,” said Adam Kissel, chairman of the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board.
A majority of board members agreed in a vote during a Wednesday morning meeting. The charter school board is not a central party to the case, but would be submitting a legal brief to express its position. Many such briefs are likely to be filed.
This is part of the positioning for a state Supreme Court review of lower court actions in a case focusing on whether West Virginia’s religious freedoms law passed in 2023 directly affects the longstanding mandatory vaccinations law for the public school system.
The circuit judge in Raleigh County, Michael Froble, late last year ruled in favor of families who want the public school system to accept religious exemptions processed by the state health department.
The West Virginia Supreme Court has already placed a stay on lower court activity surrounding the vaccine exemptions case, meaning that Judge Froble’s ruling is on hold while the appeal goes forward.
Lawyers for the state Board of Education filed the appeal and contend that the circuit judge in Raleigh County erred in six ways, including grafting an extratextual religious exemption onto the separate vaccine law.
Charter schools in the state operate as part of the public school system, but they are typically approved and overseen by the professional charter school board.
Charter schools receive financial support from the state’s public education system and are allowed greater operational latitude in exchange for the possibility of losing their right to operate if they fail.
By deciding to submit a legal brief in favor of religious exemptions to the vaccinations, the charter schools board is diverging from the position that public school system officials have taken.
Charter schools board member Latonia Page said she supports moving ahead with the brief, but expressed some caution.
“I do have reservations about the scope of that brief,” Page said. “It is my hope that the board would have the opportunity to review the brief before it is submitted, to have discussion around the the breadth and scope of what we’ve signed on for.”
West Virginia’s compulsory vaccination law means students entering school for the first time must show proof of immunization against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, and hepatitis B unless properly medically exempted.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order earlier last year linking the Equal Protection for Religion Act with the vaccine law, which has no explicit religious exceptions.
The religious protections law gives citizens the right to sue if they believe their deeply held beliefs are being suppressed. But the law includes additional factors to weigh, including whether a compelling state interest exists to uphold a policy under the least restrictive means.
The Morrisey administration directed families to apply for exemptions through the state health department, but West Virginia school systems did not accept them.
Another charter schools board member, Chanda Adkins, noted that almost all states except for a few like California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi and New York allow for religious exemptions.
“I hope, moving forward, it’ll just help bring West Virginia in line with 45 other states,” she said, “and we will look, you know, just appealing for anyone who wants to come to West Virginia to see that we are doing what the majority of the country is doing and as we see students enrollment dropping. So we want to see our student enrollment increase.”