Clock Is Ticking on NY Deadline for Student Vaccinations

Leslie Danesi, center, sits with her children Lorenzo Danesi, left, and Gabriel Danes, right, as attorneys prepare to speak at a hearing challenging the constitutionality of the state legislature's repeal of the religious exemption to vaccination in Albany, N.Y. on Aug. 14, 2019.

BUFFALO—When New York lawmakers revoked a religious exemption for mandatory school vaccinations, the change sent thousands of the state’s parents scrambling to get their kids shots—or get them out of the classroom entirely.

Lawmakers did away with the exemption in June amid the nation’s worst measles outbreak since 1992. More than 26,000 children in public and private schools and day care centers had previously gone unvaccinated for religious reasons, according to the state Health Department.