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Verify: Can children go to public school without being vaccinated?

A KHOU 11 viewer asked us on Facebook whether or not children are allowed to attend school in they are not vaccinated.

HOUSTON — The measles cases in the Houston area have a lot of you talking and asking questions. 

Our Verify team is here to separate what’s true from what’s not…

Karen Hosmer asks us on our Facebook page: “How can these children that are not vaccinated get into schools? Ours had to be up to date or they were sent home (Klein area)."

For the answer, we turned to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.

Under Texas law, all children are required to follow the state’s vaccine requirements before going to school.

But there are exemptions, all 50 states allow medical exemptions.

Children in this category must present a statement signed by a doctor.

Forty seven states except for California, Mississippi, and West Virginia grant religious exemptions.

Texas is one of 17 states that let parents opt out for personal, moral, or other beliefs.

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School districts keep track of the number of vaccinated students at each school, but aren’t allow to tell parents which kids are vaccinated and which are not under the law.

So we can verify that children can go to public school without being vaccinated in Texas.

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