New York Vaccination Information 10/03 Coalition For Informed Choice (CFIC) is a free-to-join, statewide (NY only) coalition of about 1500 members and several organizations, including many doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Our general aim is to assist people to become advocates against vaccination, and to promote all personal freedom of choice in decisions involving health. CFIC helps people organize locally with other like-minded people, and provides advice on the nuts and bolts of effective advocacy. Our most immediate aim is to amend the current NYS laws and regulations that requires vaccinations for school to make it easier to obtain legal waivers. I wrote 3 bills that will expand our ability to refuse these vaccination mandates. These bills were introduced in the 2003 session of the state legislature and have been assigned the following bill numbers: S693, S694; S695. S693: Prevents the Dept. of Health from rejecting a private physician's certification for the medical exemption. S694: Removes the "genuine and sincere" religious test used to screen applicants for the religious exemption. S695: Enacts a "philosophical exemption" that merely requires the parent to state an objection to vaccination. Each bill focuses exclusively on one type of waiver to the vaccination requirements. The religious exemption bill and the medical exemption bill each will amend the current exemption catagories. The religious bill corrects the interpretation by the regulators that directs school officials to perform a religious test that is clearly unconstitional. The medical bill clarifies the legislative intent that solely doctors must certify those children that should be medically excused from the immunization requirement. Finally, the philosophical bill incorporates a new exemption status into the existing statute (PHL 2165/5) that allows the waiver for children whose parents hold personal objections to vaccination. You'll notice that each bill attempts to provide parents the rightful responsibility to make appropriate medical decisions for their children. Many of the 1500 NYS parents that have signed our petition are deliberately trying to safeguard from further damage, their already vaccine damaged children and their sibblings. The reasons parents are best equipped to decide this are best described in the Sponsor's Memorandum of the medical bill. The legal and logical justification why parents should decide is best described in the philosophical bill memorandum. Among the attachments are copies of the 3 bills, and expanded versions of their Sponsor's Memorandums. Eventually, this information will be posted on www.CFIC.INFO. These bills are currently posted on the NYS Legislature's website, with a much shorter version of the sponsor's memorandums. Our most pressing task will be to write to the chairmen of the health committees to allow a vote on the bills, and also, you MUST try to get your state assemblyman and state senator to sign on as co- sponsors of these bills. WE NEED YOUR ADDRESS Attached are various articles I've written and information about CFIC. Attached are also some articles I've written, and information about my coalition and what we're doing. Read "Request.doc" and "Project2.doc" regarding what you can do now. I will need your address and phone number for the reasons stated in those documents. "Request.doc" for example, is a petition that simply reads: "Parents should decide which vaccines will be given to their children." It's a simple baseline question that indicates support for the bills we introduced. If you support that, then I will enter your name and address on the petition. You may request that I remove it at any time thereafter, for whatever reasons. Read more about what we plan to do with the list of names in "Request.doc". I also need your address to assist you in joining local neighborhood and county groups. There are several around the state already assembled, and others yet to be formed. CFIC does not send information through regular mail, nor provide junk mailers with this private information. In fact, we do not want your mailing address or P.O. Boxes. We only want your residential address so that we can see where we can start forming local groups to lobby the local state legislators in that area. So, your residential address allows us to determine your Assembly and Senatorial voting districts. This grassroots effort is going on at the local level. There are many ways parents are contributing towards this effort and are remaining anonymous to government authorities. But just for coordination purposes, I must have your address. Without that, you cannot be a part of this coalition. YOUR CONCERNS ABOUT ANONYMITY A baby's vaccination status WILL ultimately be discovered sooner or later by a caregiver from a daycare center, clinic, school, babysitting agency, a hospital emergency room, even a neighbor you thought you could trust. There's also the NY State Immunization Computer Registry that most pediatricians and hospitals participate in. These are all "mandatory reporters", which means they MUST, by law, report you to Child Welfare upon any suspicion of neglect. While vaccination status is listed on the state's child welfare Risk Assessment Instrument (their checkoff list), as a sole finding, it is not sufficient grounds for a family court judge to issue a petition for neglect/maltreatment. Yet one should be prepared if and when one becomes entangled with the Child Welfare system. Fortunately, CFIC is associated with the Concerned Citizens For Family Preservation (CCFP)ća organization that intercedes on behalf of parents that decided not to vaccinate, of have chosen other holistic lifestyles and choices. CCFP is a recognized family court advocate in NYS, and also holds workshops for parents to prepare them should they become the subject of an inquiry by Child Welfare. Folasade Campbell, Executive Director Concerned Citizens For Family Preservation 120 Stuyvesant Place, Suite 425 Staten Island, NY 10301 718-447-6788 phone folasade6@aol.com Thus, in addition to counseling parents on obtaining exemptions from school vaccinations (see next section), and fashioning legislation to make that chore obsolete, CFIC also helps parents defend these rights against agencies that wish to deny them. In some instances, CFIC can make available to parents in trouble CFIC members with medical and legal backgrounds for pro bono assistance, or other parents living in proximity that might provide local resources and support. Armed with this support network, parents have the knowledge and confidence to lobby their local legislators to support the exemption bills. They realize that ultimately, enactment of these bills will be the only sure safeguard they can rely on. VACCINATION EXEMPTIONS CFIC is often asked to advise parents on the correct way to claim the NYS Personal Religious Exemption from childhood vaccinations required for school. In recent years, it has become exceedingly difficult to obtain the religious exemption in NYS. That's the reason we are attempting to amend the law with our legislation. Policies and tactics by school officials have made it necessary to provide some guidelines for parents, beyond citing the exemption provision in its most basic form. School officials have been issuing requirements for the exemption that exceed the law, or are unconstitutional. This, together with other tricks that they're using, are intended to deny or rescind vaccination exemptions. (This is happening in other states as well.) Parents that do not fully understand their rights under the law, and are not prepared to correctly respond to these evolving tactics from school officials, are falling victim to them by having their claims for exemption denied. Therefore, CFIC makes available via email only, general and tactical advice on claiming a religious exemption for school immunization requirements. Our 200 page Exemption Guidelines And Tactics (document filename="E06.doc") costs $20. Mailed checks may be made payable to "Gary Krasner" or "CFIC". Payments may also be made electronically, via paypal.com (no credit card payments. Register your bank account with Paypal instead). This one-time fee covers the average time I spend on the phone helping some people with followup questions about their particular situation that is not covered in the Guide. People are also entitled to free updates of the Guide upon request. (State the most recent version (cover date) that you have.) This Guide describes the most successful way to obtain an exemption, including basic DOs and DON'Ts, and examples of how to deal with the most common obstacles from school officials. It also includes sample letters for various situations, and an appendix containing copies of all the NYS laws and regulations pertaining to religious exemptions: Public Health Law 2164/5; NYS DoH Title 10 Codes, Rules & Regulations; The NYC Chancellor's Regulations A-710; and other documents. Supplying this document in digital form also allows for easy inclusions of sections of the sample letters (via "copy and paste", for you computer newbies) into additional letters that you may have to furnish the school. Note that this Guide provides general information pertaining only to the laws of NYS. It is available for people to avoid the costs of hiring an attorney, though such a measure might be undertaken following the school's denial of your application for the waiver. Those who require an attorney to litigate exemption claims, compensation for vaccine injuries, or any matters regarding vaccination, may ask CFIC for a referral. One attorney that is NOT recommended is James Filenbaum. Sharon Kimmelman of Vaccination Alternatives (va-sk@juno.com, 212-873-5051) provides summaries of cases that Filenbaum has botched over the many years that he's specialized in vaccination law. FINAL NOTE ABOUT VACCINATION EXEMPTIONS: It seems to be getting increasingly difficult to obtain the religious exemption generally. Many more districts now are requiring parents to endure lengthy verbal depositions, for example. Such a process may contain more pitfalls than a carefully worded letter. We have reached the point in which even a fully prepared parent may only have a 50-50 chance of getting the religious exemption. Much of it depends on the stance on the principal and district superintendent, and/or the pressure they may be receiving from the DoH. Please consider this trend when reviewing my guide to obtaining the religious exemption (document: "E06"), if and when you order it. There may be no guarantees of getting the exemption, but at least following the guide will ensure that you will not make any mistakes.