Codebook –
School-Aged Children
In 2023, all states maintain compulsory schooling laws and require immunization of school-aged children. This group features two safeguards related to the free exercise of religion for school-aged children. The first reflects whether exemptions to immunization requirements are available for religious reasons. The second indicates whether states require their school districts to grant excused absences to students for religious reasons.
Safeguard/Item: Childhood Immunization Requirement
Federal Context
There is no relevant federal rule regarding childhood immunization requirements.
External Data Source
The NCSL adapts data from the LexisNexis StateNet Database and the Immunization Action Coalition from May 2019 in their table “States with Religious and Philosophical Exemptions from School Immunization Requirements.” RLS uses the citations from the NCSL as of December 31, 2022, to identify the relevant laws and get an initial understanding of school immunization requirements and exemptions for each state.[1]
Identifying Codes and Assigning Scores
We read each law cited by the NCSL and coded each state’s law according to the type of exemption (or lack of exemption) the law allows. While the NCSL differentiates philosophical and religious exemptions, RLS operates from an understanding (made explicit in some states’ laws) that philosophical concerns are inclusive of religious beliefs. Therefore, if a state allows for broader philosophical exemptions, it provides exemption for one’s religious beliefs.
Possible Codes
A = State allows religious beliefs as a reason for exemption from childhood immunization
B = State allows exemption broader than religious (e.g., personal, philosophical, or moral beliefs) as an acceptable reason for exemption from childhood immunization
C = State does not allow nonmedical exemption (religious, personal, philosophical, or moral beliefs) as an acceptable reason for exemption from childhood immunizations
Possible Scores
1 = State makes exemptions from immunization for nonmedical reasons (e.g., religious, philosophical, or personal belief) (A, B)
0 = State makes no nonmedical exemptions (C)
Verifying Data
Throughout 2022, BillTrack50 provided the RLS team with updates on relevant bills and state laws related to childhood immunizations and all the citations from RLS 2022 data, ultimately revealing one statutory change that impacted the code and score in a state (Connecticut). The statutes cited for this safeguard, whether changing this year or not, were reread in December 2022 and confirmed with the updated external data source from NCSL. The research team noted the reason for any disagreement with that external source in the notes of the publicly available dataset.
Missing Data
None. All states have laws outlining the immunization requirements for public-school children.
Safeguard: Excused Absences for Religious Reasons
(comprised of two items)
Federal Context
While the First Amendment and other federal laws broadly protect student religious speech and private action, states legislate in a few areas regarding other types of student religious exercise. One of these areas of discretion is whether an absence due to religious observances or religious instruction (lessons, schooling, or confirmation classes) qualifies as an excused absence from school. All states have set standards describing the expectations and requirements for compulsory attendance of public-school children, and some have a list of which excuses count as lawful absences. If a student is limited to a certain number of unexcused absences, the student and his or her guardian may be subject to the state’s consequences for truancy.
External Sources
There is no external source tracking statutory compulsory attendance requirements for public-school children in each state or what constitutes excused absences in each state’s public schools.
Identify Codes and Assigning Scores
Seeing no external sources, the research team used an internet search and general survey of state statutes to locate the area of state law where laws concerning compulsory attendance for public school children exist. In addition to identifying each state’s compulsory schooling law and any exceptions from it, we accessed the website of each state’s education department, board of education,[2] or the like to locate any references to administrative or regulatory law that could serve as a substitute to statutory provisions. Where statutory law is even the least bit unclear about whether there is state-level authority to define “excused absences” beyond the statutes, the notes columns of the RLS 2023 public dataset include a link to the education department website or an authoritative document therein to further corroborate our coding decisions.
The research team carefully read each state’s compulsory schooling laws with particular interest in lists of exceptions. If excused or lawful absences were specified, we noted whether absences due to religious observances and/or religious instruction were among them. Moreover, we took special care to observe whether a state requires schools/districts (e.g., “a school shall grant”) or permits schools/districts (e.g., “a district may allow”) to provide religious excuses. This distinction is important for RLS, which measures safeguards in the form of states removing artificial barriers of free exercise, that is, artificial barriers of their own making. Since state compulsory schooling laws are potential barriers to the free exercise of religion, unless states prohibit local schools and districts from leveraging that power over religious people—that is, unless they require that religious reasons constitute an excused absence—they are not safeguarding citizens’ free-exercise rights. In short, permitting but not requiring excused absences for religious reasons is insufficient. We assigned codes to each law according to whether students are afforded excused absences for religious observances and/or religious lessons.
Verifying Data
We verified the data and scores for this safeguard by rereading each state’s compulsory schooling laws and completing a careful search of the websites of state-level education entities. The research team verified which reasons qualify as an excused absence in each state and recorded whether a state included religious observances (e.g., holidays, practices) and/or religious lessons (e.g., confirmation classes, religious instruction) as relevant excuses.
Missing Data
While all states have compulsory attendance laws for public-school students, it is difficult to establish that we’ve found all absence-related information that is binding at the state level. Since there is no external source for this data, the research team tried to locate a state-level document or website page that corroborates the assessment of each state that received a score 0 for any item in this safeguard. If a state statute explicitly grants authority to local school districts or a local school board to define excused absences, it is unlikely that we are able to find a state-level link that expands meaningfully on the authoritative statute. In cases where a document could not be found, we direct interested users to the education-governing entity’s website for the state.
Item: Excused Absences for Religious Observance—This item indicates whether a student absence due to religious holiday, observance, and/or practice qualifies as an acceptable excuse for an absence from school by the state.
Possible Codes
A = State requires, either by statutory law or by state board of education rules, schools to excuse absences due to religious holidays, observances, and/or practices
B = State statutory law explicitly permits schools to excuse absences due to religious holidays, observances, and/or practices but does not require it
C = State statutes say nothing of religious holiday, observance, and/or practice within a list of specific excused absences (permitted or required)
D = State statutes do not include a list of specific qualifying excused absences, in some cases granting authority to a more localized entity to do so
Possible Scores
1 = State requires absences due to religious holidays, observances, and practices be excused (A)
0 = State does not require absences due to religious holidays, observances, and practices be excused (B, C, D)
Item: Excused Absences for Religious Instruction—This item indicates whether student absence due to religious lessons or instruction qualifies as an acceptable excuse for an absence from school by the state.
Possible Codes
A= State requires, either by statutory law or by state board of education rules, schools to excuse absences due to religious lessons and/or instruction
B= State statutory law explicitly permits schools to excuse absences due to religious lessons and/or instruction but does not require it
C= State statutes say nothing of religious lessons and/or instruction within a list of specific excused absences (permitted or required)
D= State statutes do not include a list of specific qualifying excused absences, in some cases granting authority to a more localized entity to do so
Possible Scores
1 = State requires absences due to religious lessons and/or instructions be excused (A)
0 = State does not require absences due to religious lessons and/or instructions be excused (B, C, D)
[1] The NCSL regularly updates these tables and databases according to changes in state laws.
[2] Only two state boards of education, in Connecticut and Georgia, require all public schools to grant excused absences for religious observance.
