The Health of Louisiana Schools is Again at Risk - Take Action Now!

Thank you for signing this petition last year to keep Louisiana schools safe and healthy. A new advocacy group, Louisiana Families for Vaccines, has brought to our attention a bill that threatens to bring ALL vaccine-preventable diseases back to Louisiana schools. Luckily, there are clear steps we can take to stop this bill from becoming Louisiana law!

BEFORE 9AM WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27:

• Please CALL & EMAIL the House Education Committee to OPPOSE HB47. Email h-educ@legis.la.gov and copy the individual committee members. Their contact info is listed here. A script/draft email can be found below.
• Please fill out RED cards in OPPOSITION to HB47 if you can make it to the capitol on Wednesday at 9am in HCR-1.
• HB47 by Rep. Edmonston: Requires that any communication issued to students or parents about immunization requirements include exemption information and an exemption form.

This is not the only bill that has been filed which threatens the health of students, teachers, and school staff in Louisiana. Get more updates from Louisiana Families for Vaccines at www.lafamiliesforvaccines.org/updates 

For additional calls-to-action go to www.lafamiliesforvaccines.org/action

Sample script for emails & phone calls:

Dear Honorable Members of the LA House Education Committee,

I am writing on behalf of Louisiana Families for Vaccines, a volunteer-led, grassroots network of Louisianans who support evidence-based vaccine policy. I am strongly opposed to HB47:  Requires that any communication issued to students or parents about immunization requirements include exemption information and an exemption form.
HB47 opens the door for diseases like measles and polio to come back and affect the people of Louisiana - the people you have been elected to serve.

Exemption information is already provided by schools and easy to access. Increasing communications about exemptions and including an exemption form will not only add burden to our schools, but will aggravate vaccine hesitancy rather than educate and address concerns. This will increase the risk for an infectious disease outbreak.

If this happens, our kids will miss out on more days of school. This happened enough during the covid19 pandemic and we are ready to get back to a safe and healthy school environment where kids can learn.

If kids start needing to stay home (or worse become hospitalized) due to PREVENTABLE illnesses, parents will need to take time from work to care for them. Families will suffer unnecessary medical costs and loss of income from time off of work. Businesses will suffer from employees affected by these outbreaks as well.

HB47 is not good for Louisiana's people or economy.

I respectfully ask you to vote "NO" on HB47. Thank you for all you do in service to Louisiana.

Sincerely,

[Name]
[City]
Louisiana Families for Vaccines