Florida’s Department of Health will hold a public hearing Oct. 8 on its proposed revisions to Rule 64D-3.046, the state rule that sets immunization requirements for school entry, according to a notice published Sept. 30 in the Florida Administrative Register. The hearing is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern time, or until it concludes, at the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary, the notice says.
In a separate notice of change published the same day, the department struck the phrase “which may include a sincerely held moral or ethical belief” from its proposed religious exemption form, which still states: “Immunizations are in conflict with my religious tenets or practices.” The notice strikes similar wording from the state’s immunization guidelines. When the department first published the proposal on Aug. 24, its notice said the rule would update the religious exemption form, “providing for the inclusion of moral and ethical beliefs.”
The Aug. 24 notice also said the proposed rule “removes from requirements immunizations that are not required by section 1003.22, Florida Statutes.” The Miami Herald (opens in new tab) and the News Service of Florida, in a report published by WUSF, said that would end school-entry requirements for the hepatitis B, chickenpox (varicella), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Other requirements, such as those for measles and polio, are written into state law and would take action by the Legislature to repeal, the Herald reported. The public comment period on the August proposal ran from Aug. 24 to Sept. 14, according to the register.
Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has framed the effort as ending mandates rather than discouraging vaccination. “It’s not the vaccines, it’s the mandates,” he told Florida’s Voice (opens in new tab) in August. “It’s this idea that government can force you to inject your baby with something or inject your kid with something. It’s just wrong.” He told the outlet the vaccines remain available to families who want them.
Physicians’ groups have opposed the change. Responding to the governor’s and surgeon general’s call in September 2025 to end the state’s vaccine mandates, American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Susan Kressly said, “The AAP believes every family should have access to immunizations to keep their community healthy,” according to the WUSF report. At a department workshop in December, Panama City pediatrician Dr. Eehab Kenawy said: “You're not forced. But sending a message to the general public that vaccines are not important, vaccines are not needed, is not the way to do it,” WUSF reported.
The Florida chapters of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics requested the Oct. 8 hearing, the Florida Phoenix (opens in new tab) reported. Christopher Nuland, a Jacksonville health care attorney and lobbyist for the physicians’ chapter, told the Phoenix: “We applaud the removal of the phrase ‘sincerely held moral or ethical belief(s)’ as the governing statute did not authorize such an exemption.” He added, “Our fundamental objection to the proposed rule is the deletion of those four vaccinations.” In a letter to the department, the pediatricians’ chapter wrote: “Even when exercised infrequently, nonmedical exemptions are neither harmless nor benign. They lead to lower immunization rates and weaken our ability as a state to protect ourselves against dangerous diseases,” WUSF reported.
The Herald reported that about 94% of Florida kindergarten students were vaccinated in 2019 and that the figure fell to 89% in 2026. It also reported that President Donald Trump’s August executive order on the childhood vaccine schedule recommended that all children be immunized against chickenpox, Hib and pneumococcal disease. According to the WUSF report, no legislator filed a bill in any of the 2026 legislative sessions to remove the statutory requirements, and “medical freedom” bills that would have expanded exemptions passed the state Senate but failed in the House.
Under Florida law, the department can adopt the rule with the approval of the surgeon general, who heads the agency, and the rule is adopted once it is filed with the Department of State, WUSF reported. Under state law, a person who is substantially affected by a proposed rule may challenge it by filing a petition with the state Division of Administrative Hearings, including within 10 days after the final public hearing on the rule.