(LifeSiteNews) — West Virginia’s public charter schools will now accept religious exemptions to state-mandated vaccine policies obtained through the state’s health department.
While the state has a strict school immunization law, members of the state’s Professional Charter Schools Board voted on Thursday to follow Republican Governor Patrick Morrisey’s executive order issued in January requiring religious exemptions to school vaccine mandates be honored.
According to multiple reports by local news outlets, the board’s decision followed advice from the governor’s attorney, Sean Whelan, who linked the governor’s directive to the state’s 2023 Equal Protection for Religion Act (EPRA).
“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,” said Whelan. “The governor is looking for partnership in this area and support in applying the Equal Protection for Religion Act.”
Late last month, a state judge ruled in favor of three parents who had sought to protect their children from forced vaccinations required in Raleigh County, West Virginia.
The case had pitted Governor Morrisey against the state Department of Health and individual school districts that had argued the EPRA’s directive to honor religious exemptions is not spelled out in the law.
A proposal to enshrine religious specific exemptions into law did not pass the legislature earlier this year.
“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,” said Morrisey at the time. “My administration will continue to grant religious exemptions to compulsory vaccine requirements and uphold West Virginia’s Equal Protection for Religion Act until this case is fully settled.”
The West Virginia Board of Education noted that the judge’s ruling is limited to just the three families involved in the legal action and would not immediately apply to other families with school-aged children throughout the state.
“As of last month, the state’s Department of Health said it had processed 140 religious exemptions for the 2025-2026 school year under Morrisey’s executive order,” explained a report by West Virginia Watch.
“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,” the report added
