Bill Description: House Bill 597 would protect medical freedom and privacy for 18-year-old high schoolers and for college and university students.

Rating: +2

Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?

Idaho code allows parents and legal guardians to exempt their minor students from vaccine mandates, but this exemption ends once a student turns 18. 

House Bill 597 would amend Section 39-4802, Idaho Code, to address this problem, saying that "any student of majority age who submits a signed statement to school officials stating the student's objections on religious or other grounds shall be exempt from any or all immunization requirements at every public, private, or parochial school in this state." 

This bill would give 18-year-old high school students the same protections already extended to minor students through their parents and legal guardians.

(+1)

House Bill 597 would go beyond protecting high schoolers, extending the right of adult students to obtain an exemption from "any or all immunization requirements" by submitting "a signed statement" containing the "student's objections on religious or other grounds" to a range of higher education institutions including "postsecondary, trade, college, university, or any other institute of primary, secondary, or higher learning."

This bill would help protect the medical freedom and privacy of college and university students in Idaho. 

(+1)