In Rockland County, six of the 80 Orthodox Jewish schools in the state database had vaccination rates below 90 percent, according to OJPAC, an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group. Taking into account the size of each school, 96 percent of all school-age conservative children in the county were vaccinated, the group said.
“Since almost all children in Jewish schools are completely caught up with their mandatory vaccinations by the time they go to school, it is absurd to claim that collectively there are more anti-vaccination sentiments in this community than anywhere else,” says Yossi. Gestetner, co-founder of the group.
In Oneida County, a small Amish school, Meadow Valley, reported that 11 percent of its students had been vaccinated against polio. Dan Gilmore, the county’s director of public health, said he wasn’t sure vaccinations were needed in Amish schools, although he encourages them. In any case, he said, enforcement would fall to the state. The director of public health in Catarags County said that about 20 Amish schools in his area have not provided any vaccine information to the state.
The state health department confirmed that it is responsible for investigating complaints about vaccination reporting for private schools outside New York City, conducting annual audits of a “select number” of schools, and issuing a corrective action plan. However, how often the audit takes place is not clear.
After the state removed religious exemptions for vaccinations in 2019, an Amish family in rural Seneca County sued, saying they opposed vaccination because they believed “God gave his children” right and good’ and to vaccinate your children is to lose faith in God,” according to the lawsuit.
Under state law, the illiterate children of the family should have been kept out of school. But although the family lost in the first round of the court battle, the state backed down and did not enforce the rule, said the family’s attorney, James G. Marmigis, who dropped the action.