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While I'm all for home schooling, vaccinations are another thing. I think it would depend on the type of vaccination.
I'm sure some should be manditory while others would be up to the parents.

My child is 11 and had to be re-vaccinated this year for school. I don't have a problem with some vaccinations but I've heard horror stories about others. The disease would be better than the side effects of the vaccination. That is also true of some medications. I think homeschooling is a private issue, I know many people who homeschool, I've never heard it's because of vaccinations. However, whatever the reason it is up to the parents and their children. I don't think the government should have a say in this. Politicians need to stop pandering to the Teachers' unions. Let people make their own decisions.

I have worked in public education for nearly 25 years, and I am grateful for anyone who takes advantage of the availability of childhood vaccinations. I cannot tell you how many times I have been affected by the passing of infected items from our students. My personal opinion is that anyone who avoids good health is endangering more than themselves. Although I have not heard of any of these suggested "horror stories," I have been aware of major problems at our campuses with children passing serious infections. Is this another "generation-al" thing? I am grateful my mother took all of us as children to get those sometimes painful vaccinations and boosters. I would sure hate to confront potentially deadly infections at my age of relatively insignificant diseases for a child.

Regardless, this is, in my opinion, an asinine excuse for home schooling. However, it is also my opinion that home schooling is a right not to be questioned. Unfortunately, we continue to transfer so many of our social responsibilities to our governmental organizations, and we have no immediate recourse for picking and choosing what aspects of every issue are to be touched by our governments. I personally believe politicians should not be allowed to pander to any group or individual; however, I do not see the issue of required vaccinations possibly originating from our sorely needed voice of the teachers' unions. And, on the subject of people making their own decisions... if only they would. We try hard in public education to empower people to make good decisions. Unfortunately, too many people continue to fight the educational process into adulthood to the detriment of society and government as a whole.

I have nothing against home schooling. My nephew was home schooled because he could learn better in an individualized environment. He was extremely bright, but has ADHD and was better able to test orally, and the schools insisted on written. So there is a place for home schooling, absolutely.

But to do it to avoid immunizations is ridiculous. It is not showing love to their children, because they are going to get some of those diseases whether they attend school or not. Why not protect them just because you love them?

Even home schooling requires some socialization with other kids, so why put these other kids at risk, not to mention their own? Quite frankly, the only way these parents are going to truly protect their children without immunizations is to keep them quaranteened and never allowed contact with other children. And that is criminal, of course.

And the educator above is correct - when children contract these childhood diseases, they usually go through them relatively easily; but when they get them as adults, they can be life threatening. Those parents are not doing their children any favors.

I'm thankful I was immunized as a child, and I made sure my daughter was, and now my grandchildren are. Why play such dangerous games with their health?

Yes, there can be some horrendous reactions to some of the immunizations, but they are not common and happen only very seldom. But that's when the media steps in a makes a big bugaboo about it.

I have been a home educator for over 26 years and I have never heard of anyone doing it to avoid vaccinations. The people I know are concerned about their children's education and want to provide the best for them. My children have all been vaccinated, though I have to admit that I'm not always quick to jump on the band-wagon of newly introduced vaccines. I tend to be cautious until they've been out for a year or two.
I believe this decision should be in the hands of the parents, in any case.

If I had read the information about vaccinations that is available now when my daughter was a child, she would NOT have been vaccinated. Did you know the Chicken Pox vaccine is only good for 10 years so even if the child gets the first booster, they will be due for a second booster when they are in COLLEGE! That is the shot they are NOT following up on. How many people are going to get a booster every 10 years for the rest of their lives? This also applies to several of the other vaccines. Even the children who are vaccinated may not be immune. If you check the records there have been outbreaks of mumps and measles that included children that had been vaccinated. I would rather have children get childhood diseases as children instead of as adults when they are much harder to recover from. I had measles, mumps, chicken pox, etc. as a child with no aftereffects. In this day of better health and better living conditions for many people, the risk of the disease is less than the risk of the immunization. I love the statement that there are some horrendous reactions but they happen very seldom. I am sure that would comfort the parents who have experienced one of these horrendous reaction tremendously. The current policy is to give 6 shots at one time to a 1 month old baby. What a horrible shock to this tiny fragile person. By the way, if most children and adults have had these wonderful immunizations, how are they becoming infected by the few who don't have their immunizations?

I was surprised to read that "many" parents were opting to home school their children because of vaccination requirements. I had just assumed the biggest reason would be dissatisfaction with the public school's curriculum, or perhaps special needs of the child. I am old enough to remember seeing others that had been affected by polio and am very thankful that the vaccine was developed and used on a widespread basis. Vaccines for highly communicable diseases should be mandatory. Our world is shrinking, and diseases that are uncommon now in America are still problems elsewhere. Where the debate comes in for me is , for example, the new HPV vaccine. I would want my daughter to have it, but many people were very upset when my state was considering mandating the vaccine.

sheltering kids by home schooling them is not a good idea. kids need to interact with other kids and interact in different environemnts. besides, parents do not have the skills to teach kids all the things they need to know. what's next? will parents will be putting their kids in bubbles to protect them? kids out of school does more harm than good and I truly believe that home schooling is a bad idea.

Home schooling to avoid vaccination could just backfire on you. Will they learn better at home? Will they learn to fraternize with children from all walks of life? Will you be able to keep them insulated from deadly diseases?

I raised four daughters in MD and they got all the shots that the state dictated. However, the last two did not need the small pox at that time. They haven't had any problems with anything, but then we are talking about many years ago.

The main thing I suppose is that it should be up to the parents to make the right or wrong decision for their children. They brought them into the world and are responsible for them and any repercussions due to those decisions.

Vaccinations are only mandatory for those without the gumption to state a religious and/or philosophical objection to them. Check your state's laws regarding this; there are exceptions in every one. Otherwise, the state would become liable for the financial consequences of those times when something does go seriously wrong. If it does, the state has the "out" that the parent could have objected, but didn't. So, homeschooling for vaccination reasons is just a red herring. Parents really do it because of the desire to guide their children as they see fit, whether better or worse.

Most people can be very healthy without vaccinations simply by eating healthy food and maintaining a healthy attitude and lifestyle. A vaccine operates by stimulating the body's natural responses to an invading microbe. So the vaccine isn't "doing it" - it just stimulates your body into developing its own antibodies.

For more details on what vaccines have been shown to do, there are a number of books to read. Research for yourself.

I am a firm believer in home schooling. I have 3 that are doing it now. However we are homeschooling because puplic schools are little more than glorified baby sitting services now. It has nothing to do with vaccinations - in fact ours are still current. I also don't know of anyone that is doing this becuase of the vaccinations. Fix the schools and it will become a mute point.

I agree - kids should be in school for the socialization and learning how to deal with others and confrontations. I too believe that home schooling is a bad idea. Immunizations should be given to protect everyone at every age. The "horror stories" usually have another underlying condition first. I do not believe that people are keeping kids out of school because of it. Parents can sign off.

Ive heard alot about the possiblity of the connection between vaccinations and Autisum in boys. I have a daughter and she has had all her vaccinations but if she would have been a boy I
would not have made the same choice. My sister is a Para for Autistic children. She works with alot of children that are severly autistic and almost always boys! Why are there so many children with this disease? I also grew up with thoses same vaccinations and I still got chinken pox and some of those child hood diseases. Anyway my point is its should be up to the parents not the government to make this choice. Who has to take care of these children when something goes wrong?? Besides if there is something is these vaccinations that nots so good do you really think the government is going to admit it? NOT!!!!!!!

Sherrie, the reason these childhood diseases are not common these days IS because we adults were vaccinated as children as were our parents. They will become more common as more children are allowed to go unvaccinated. Adults are catching disease from unvaccinated children because our immunity decreases with age and we're not getting our boosters (not mandated because we are out of school). Granted some of the newer vaccines may be unnecessary and side effects worse than the disease they prevent, and those should be elective, not mandatory; but I believe even home schooled children should be vaccinated against polio, measles, chickenpox, etc, because they do come into contact with other children and adults in public places.

When I was in school, we didn't have chicken pox or measles vaccines, so I went through both of those diseases. But I, along with everyone else, was vaccinated against smallpox and polio. And that is why we almost eliminated those two diseases. The mistake occurred when it was decided smallpox vaccines were no longer necessary. Almost eliminated is not the same as completely eliminated, and with the ease of travel any more, we never know when we will come across any of those diseases.

And James is correct about religious or philosophical exemptions from some vaccinations (although I think the use of the word "gumption" was inappropriate). Parents do need to be more knowledgeable about the law so they aren't pulling their kids from school just to avoid vaccinations.

Did you know the Federal Government has set up a special fund through the "National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986". It awards monetary settlements to families whose children have died or been damaged by vaccines. The Government assumes the liability of the drug manufacturers to maintain the status quo of mass vaccination. Since the first award in 1990, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid almost a BILLION taxpayer dollars to families of vaccine damaged children and these are just the cases that were reported and positively linked to the vaccines. According to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, there were more than 3 times as many serious adverse reactions to the Hepatitis B vaccine as there were reported cases of the disease in the 0 to 14 age group. How is this helping our children or anyone else? According to the Center for Disease Control the only cases of polio in the US today were caused by the live oral polio vaccine. The President of the American Academy of Pediatrics said one in 3000 doses of the pertussis vaccine causes permanent damage to a child. (Remember each child gets 4 doses of DPT so the odds drop to one out of every 750.) The July 1994 Issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that over 80% of children under 5 years of age who got whooping cough had been fully vaccinated. The bottom line is whether you are willing to take the chance that your infant is going to be one of the children who experiences a serious reaction or dies from the vaccine. There has been a lot of compensation paid and that obviously doesn't include the cases that weren't reported. Looks like a need for more research and development. Check the statistics for the new HPV vaccine. In 1976, children received 23 doses of vaccine by the time they were 6 years old. Now it is more than twice that many. Go to www.909shot.com for more info.

I personally think vacinations are a necessary evil children and even adults some times need to protect not only themselves but others around them. Home schooling is another thing I think it sigood if the parents have the knowledge to teach their children at home since the school system is not getting the teachers it needs and the parents help in the schools, but believe it is up to the parents to decide this.

God has given us a sound mind. We must obey God but also man's law. Vaccinations will hep your child live longer. If you love them and want them to stay healthy and live longer, then simply vacinnate them. God will not punish you for this!