Can a Catholic Private School in PA legally not accept a religious exempt?

[universalbaby]

Someone in this forum very kindly replied to my question in August with a link to PA law explaining. Maybe I read it wrong?

Because I thought that ALL schools, public and private, legally must accept religious exemption in PA. The school is telling me that they do not accept religious exemption because they do not have to as they are private.

Is this correct?

Thank you in advance.

Edited by universalbaby - 10/9/12 at 8:04pm

[emmy526]

Originally Posted by universalbaby 

Someone in this forum very kindly replied to my question in August with a link to PA law explaining. Maybe I read it wrong?

Because I thought that ALL schools, public and private, legally must accept religious exemption in PA. The school is telling me that they do not accept religious exemption because they do not have to as they are private.

Is this correct?

Thank you in advance.

if they do not accept any state or federal funding, then the school has the right to deny anyone they want to.  It's a private organization. 

[serenbat]

I agree with dmmy526, as far as I know they can do a lot that a non-private can do, not just vaccines! They can deny you for many reasons if they want, most will not take a Catholic if they do not vac as they do not allow an exemption for religion even for a Catholic- you "MIGHT" get some place if can you get a medical exemption? Even with a medical they (as far as I know) can also deny you based on medical because they are not at the standards of the PA public schools.

I would also post in the tribe section for PA.

[Squeeze]

Can I also recommend that perhaps maybe the school doesn't understand why you wouldn't want to vaccinate. If you go to www.cogforlife.org it explains why Catholics and other people prefer not to vaccinate. Some of the vaccines have aborted fetal tissue in them. You may be able to find some documentation that would help the school to understand why it is important that your child is not vaccinated. There is documentation supporting not vaccinating your child on that website. I do not know if you were Catholic or not it shouldn't really matter. The point is you're sending your child to a Catholic school and they need to be aware of what the churches says regarding vaccines. I really hope this helps.

[Marnica]

I would contact the attorney general for PA and ask. The way PA law is written - school is defined as "public, private and parochial schools, including kindergartens, special education classes, home education programs and vocational classes in this Commonwealth."

so I'm not so sure they can refuse.
 

[serenbat]

in PA it is the dept of health that would handle it, not the attorney general

and the Catholic church is not anti-vac, as a whole they do not support exemptions based on religion........ is is older but they have not changed their view- this talks about how Catholics can not take the exemption based on "religious" reasons and thus as a private school they can and do make their own rules for many things - http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0504240.htm

also to know- in PA the school itself would not make the "rules" it is at the discretion of the diocese per the individual school but overseen as a norm for all Catholic schools in the state