Religious exemption in Maryland

[susienjay]

My dd is in kindergarten in MD and I turned in a religious exemption for her this summer. She is partially vaxed but we only have religious exemption here. The school nurse called me that she'd lost the form but before that she had contacted my dd's pediatrician about it. Is this allowed? She also mentioned she wanted to fax a copy of her vax exemption to her doctor. It doesn't seem like this should be allowed but I can't seem to find anything specific to this.

The main vax my dd is missing is a second MMR. I have a son with nonverbal Autism and there is no way I can bring myself to get that shot for her. He lost speech 3 weeks after getting his MMR. I'd rather withdraw her and homeschool than get the shot.

[ma2two]

I don't know what the laws about that would be. The doctor has nothing to do with your religion, so ask the school nurse what the point would be to fax a copy of your religious exemption to your doctor, other than pure harassment. The word harassment might get her attention.

[emmy526]

here is the form..print it out, give it to the school and tell the nurse she has no business faxing anything anywhere and ask her where she got the idea it was OK to do that.  I think she is overstepping her bounds on that one. 

http://ideha.dhmh.md.gov/OIDEOR/IMMUN/Shared%20Documents/896_form.pdf

and i don't believe she has any right to fax a copy to your dr.  It's not her call to do that.   i do not see anywhere in the form where it says the school nurse has the authority to contact anyone regarding the exemption, except maybe the parent.  

[susienjay]

That is the form that I'd already given the school.

I wound up e-mailing the principal and she said she wasn't aware that my dd's doctor was called and she is looking into it.  I felt I needed to go above the nurse because I anticipated trouble based on the nurse's behavior in August over the exemption.  She had repeatedly tried to get me to take my dd for shots and I just kept repeating over and over again to please file her exemption.  I don't think she really wanted to do it so I'm suspicious that it is now "lost". 

Then again yesterday I repeatedly said she was to not fax the exemption to her doctor and she kept trying to twist my words around asking if I did want it sent.  I will be in the building today to volunteer in dd's classroom but I'm not sure I really want to deal with the nurse in person.  She has been so pushy so far and I'm not confrontational at all.  I had dropped dd's exemption off at the office when I knew the nurse wouldn't be there (during summer school) just to avoid having to discuss it in person.  

My son has a religious exemption as well and I've not had a single peep out of his school over it.  It's in the same district too so I tend to think this is an overzealous school nurse that wants to pressure vaccines.   I'm sure she thinks she is doing something good but she isn't following the law as far as I can tell.