West Virginia’s public charter school system will advise its schools to accept religious exemptions to the state’s mandatory vaccination policies if the student’s request is approved by state health officials.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey and the state’s public school system are at odds over the issue. The Republican governor issued an executive order in January requiring the state to allow religious exemptions to its school vaccination laws. He based the order on the 2023 Equal Protection for Religion Act.
The state’s school immunization law hasn’t changed, and the state school board said earlier this summer that they wouldn’t comply with Morrisey’s executive order. They instructed county boards of education to require all vaccines and allow only medical exemptions.
On Thursday, members of the West Virginia Professional Charter Schools Board voted to direct executive director James Paul to communicate to the state’s seven charter schools that they should accept vaccination waivers obtained through the state health department. Under Morrisey’s order, a medical professional’s signature is not required to obtain a religious and philosophical exemption.
The charter school board’s decision followed advice from Sean Whelan, an attorney for Morrisey, who said that the state’s mandatory vaccination law should be considered alongside the state’s Equal Protection for Religion Act. Whelan said it hadn’t been enforced in this area until now.
“EPRA creates a personal and private right of action for parents and students who feel like their religious objections are being ignored and the state laws are defying their religious beliefs,” Whelan said. “The governor is looking for partnership in this area and support in applying the Equal Protection for Religion Act.”
He continued, “We asked for a similar partnership from the State Board of Education, and certainly what we got in response was not that. So, I think a different direction from the charter school board would certainly be appreciated.”
In contrast, Jack Willems, an assistant attorney general who advises the charter school board, urged the board to maintain the state’s current strict vaccination rules due to his interpretation of how state and federal religious freedom laws intersect with immunization policies.
“It’s not just standing with the state Board of Education. It’s also standing with the Legislature, which has rejected carving out a religious exemption to the compulsory vaccination mandate,” he said.
Earlier this year, the GOP-heavy House of Delegates opted not to approve a bill that would have changed the state’s vaccination law to permit religious exemptions.
West Virginia had been one of five states in the country that didn’t allow families to be exempted from school vaccination requirements based on their religious or philosophical beliefs. The strict immunization rules have contributed to the state having one of the nation’s highest rates of fully-vaccinated kindergarten students.
In late July, a Raleigh County judge sided with Morrisey and his executive order, granting a preliminary injunction for three families seeking vaccinations exemptions on religious grounds. The parents had filed suit against Raleigh County schools over the issue.
The judge ruled that the state’s mandatory school vaccine law is invalid without a religious exemption to the law.
“No family should be forced to choose between their faith and their children’s education, which is exactly what the unelected bureaucrats on the state Board of Education are attempting to force West Virginians to do,” Morrisey said in his statement after the ruling.
In response to the ruling, the West Virginia Board of Education emphasized that the ruling is limited to the families involved in the suit and will not apply to other families in Raleigh County or throughout the state. The state school board hasn’t yet announced their next steps as students return to classrooms this month.
As of June, the state Department of Health said it had processed 140 religious exemptions for the 2025-2026 school year under Morrisey’s executive order. At 140, the number of exemptions would still be a tiny fraction of the total number of school age children in the state, estimated at more than 250,000.
West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: [email protected].
