Amish families in NY charged $2000 for unvaccinated kids

First Liberty Institute is urging the Supreme Court to intervene as Amish families face crushing fines under New York's school vaccine mandate.

The spread of measles in Pennsylvania and Ohio is largely affecting Amish communities where vaccinations levels are low. ... A nurse named Stephanie Truckey, right, making a house call to the home of Nancy Miller in Middlefield, Ohio.Credit...Madeleine Hordinski for The New York Times

Together they have been assessed ... due to their sincerely held religious beliefs about vaccination. The state has fined each school $2,000 per violation.2...

The state’s health department imposed penalties of $2,000 per violation against Dygert Road School, Pleasant View School and Shady Lane School. The Amish challenge cited the 1972 Supreme Court Wisconsin v.

But New York repealed its religious exemption for vaccine mandates for school children in June of 2019. Lawmakers referred to religious beliefs opposing vaccination as “fake” and “garbage.” · In 2022, the State brought an enforcement ...

Amish families will likely have ... hit with crushing fines for not having students vaccinated The fines are roughly $2,000 per noncompliant children, multiplied by the number of school days 3 small schools were sited, of the ...

With approximately $2,000 per noncompliant child multiplied by each day of attendance, the fines compound at a rate that makes compliance economically impossible for families who refuse vaccination on religious grounds.

In 2022, New York’s Health Commissioner Mary Bassett imposed the penalties against the Amish schools. By December 2022, Dygert Road had been billed $52,000, Pleasant View $46,000, and Shady Lane $20,000. The Amish sued, arguing violations of their religious liberty and parental rights.

These are church-run schools on private land. They generally receive no public funding. But the schools are racking up big fines: up to $2,000 for each day an unvaccinated child attends classes.

Each unvaccinated child constituted a separate violation, carrying a penalty of up to $2,000. Wengerd, elected to speak for Amish schools in New York, put the community’s position in a handwritten letter that is now in the court file.

Obwohl das New Yorker ... galten allerdings pro Tag der „Nichteinhaltung“, ein ungeimpftes Kind wurde dabei mit bis zu 2.000 Dollar pro Tag geahndet....

The families' attorneys say every Amish school in the state is in the same situation as these schools. The state began issuing fines of up to $2,000 per unvaccinated child in 2022, and they total $118,000 for 59 children.