Montessori and Vaccine Issues

[dj'smommy]

Hello. I am thinking about sending my son who is now 3 1/2 to my local Montessoi School. They have Pre-K and K and I went to see it last week and really liked it there. I'm just wondering if other moms out there have had any problems with enrolling their children in Montessori if they chose not to vaccinate as I have. The woman there already told me she would need his vaccination record and being that I haven't dealt with this yet I'm hoping there is no problem. I would plan on writing a religious exemption letter since in New Jersey where I am there is no philosophical exemption yet.

If anyone has dealt with this and has any advice it would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Penny]

depends on state and the director of the "private" school

I have the exact same question. I assume that it depends on the state you are in and the policy of the "private" school you want your child to attend. I too am enrolling my 3 year old in a Montessori school this fall. They will request her vac. records. I plan on filling out their vac. form - by stating on the back that due to "religious" believes she will not receive vacs. (Montana law only allows "religious" exemptions but doesn't require that we belong to a religious organization. I can also have her doctor (Naturopath) sigh the form stating that for medical reasons she hasn't received any vaccines.

As I understand it, most schools will accept this and tell you in writing that incase of an outbreak of some illness, your child will be asked to leave until everyone is well. (which make no sense, why would the kids that have been vaccinated get ill?)

I would love to here advise from parents that have already dealt with this.

By the way, my childs doctor suggests that at age 4, children's immune system is mature enough to receive some key vaccines. I not sure what would be considered "key" vaccines.

[LaLa]

Wow, this is another issue I have yet to deal with.

Dd is only 15 months old, so we're not there yet. We've partially vaxed.

I wish the parents could actaully make the medical decisions for their children without teh state intervention. I hate to feel that i need to "lie" and claim a religious exemption?! It just isn't right.

[Mami_Mala]

I'm in the same exact situation

I am loking at possibly enrolling my 4 year old dd in either a Waldorf or Montessori school ( have yet to make the final decision) and am worried about the vaccine issue as dd hasn't been vaxed at all and NY exemptions are a pain in the you know where from what I've heard.

If I have any info as I go through the process I will pass on the info.

Peace

[dj'smommy]

I'll keep you posted

Well it seems as if many of us are in the same boat. I will be making a decision in the next couple of weeks if I will be enrolling my ds in the pre-K program. If I decide to I will be writing a religious exemption letter I suppose - unless they just have a form I can fill out. But I will keep you all posted as to what happens and how it works out.

Just to let you all know also, I have sent out posts as well through the NJAICV (New Jersey Alliance for Informed Choice in Vaccination) so if any readers are from NJ I can tell you I have heard from a few parents that have enrolled their children in Montessori and haven't had any problems with claiming a religious exemption. And as far as Waldorf goes parents have told me that there tend to be a good amount of children there who are not vaccinated. So I believe they are even more understanding.

Anyway, let's keep each other informed of our situations.

Peace

Noelle

[calgal007]

Okay, I'm not trying to flame anyone here, but sometimes I end up doing that because vaccination is a very personal choice. Here goes: I couldn't send my son to a terrific Waldorf school BECAUSE some parents don't vaccinate. I know he is a very rare medical type, but heck, this is our life and it hurts to be regarded as some freakish medical anomoly.
The reason is, he has a compromised immune system plus is allergic to one of the components of some vaccines. For most (non-vaccinated) children, exposure to measles, mumps, rubella, etc. means they stay home, are nursed through the illness, and return to school. For my son, it would mean hospitalization, treatment with steroids and other heavy-duty, side-effect laden meds, and several weeks out of commision. Please consider people like us, who CAN'T vaccinate, whether it is our wish or not. I would have loved to have had a Waldorf school experience, but out of 20 children in Kindergarten, 11 were not vaccinated, and I couldn't run the risk of exposure to viral infection. . .

[dj'smommy]

Hello calgal,

I do not want to flame anyone either....just discuss the issues.

What about the children who are vaccinated and come down with measles? From statistics I've read on measles outbreaks (and I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head) many times children who are vaccinated are the ones that start the outbreak in the first place and then other vaccinated children exposed come down with measles as well.

Does your son go to public school now and if so are there any unvaccinated children there? IMO I would think you would find either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated chilren in many more school systems now as the controversy over vaccines increases.

Just my two cents.

My best to you and your son.

Noelle

[calgal007]

Hi Noelle,
I don't really know the statistics on vaccinated children who then come down with the diseases, other than that it definately occurs with the oral polio vaccine. Any viral infections are a big deal to our family; "slapcheek" virus, hand foot and mouth, etc., so to paraphrase a popular saying, "It's all bad".
The school he attends is 100% vaccinated, but it's also a population of parents who are problematic in consumer/entitled ways, (and that can be dangerous to character formation, no?) so there's never a perfect solution. My point was only to say, there are children who live with issues far bigger than the average AP parenting household does. (You should have heard the backlash I received for not breastfeeding my then-nine-month-old. Some days, I simply didn't have the energy to explain for the nth time that my son barely made it to nine months of age, and it never occured to me that I might NOT be able to breastfeed until 2-3 years of age.) I guess sometimes I feel like a poster child for "You can't judge a mom by everything she does".

[dj'smommy]

We do whatever needs to be done for our children. A mother always knows what is best and even if for some reason you cannot do everything you thought you would or wanted to for your child I believe you should never feel you are a bad mother.

We all make our choices and decisions based on our own needs and reasons. And I would never be judgemental of anyone that parents different than me. You are right, there is never a "perfect" solution. Just as nobody is perfect and we don't live in a perfect world.

If we were all the same this would be a pretty dull world!

Noelle

[calgal007]

Thanks, Noelle. I have had a week of hearing nothing but negatives about my child, and it was nice to see your message. I appreciate your understanding. It was a balm to my chapped soul!!! Calgal

[rocketmom]

Hi All! Just wanted to quickly let you all know that my dd1 (almost 5) is at a Montessori here in town and is NOT vaxed. Not a big deal!!!! Simply flip the big blue card (at least it is blue here in CA) over that they fill out the wheres and whens out on for vaxing and sign your name. It is a waiver and by LAW you are NOT required to vax your children to get them into school or anything else. Don't be affraid, tell all those mean people out there that it is NONE of their buisness! It is your child and YOUR choice!!!

TO ALL!!!!!