How to Fill Out the Hawaii Religious Exemption Form for School Vaccinations

To claim a religious exemption from Hawaii’s school immunization requirements, a parent, guardian, or adult student fills out the Hawaii religious exemption form for school vaccinations, initials three required certifications, and submits it to the school where the student is enrolled. The form is issued by the Hawaii Department of Health and applies to public schools, private schools, childcare facilities, and post-secondary institutions. One rule catches most families off guard: the exemption must cover every required vaccine or none. You cannot use it to decline a specific shot.¹

Who Files the Form

For a child in K-12 or childcare, any parent, custodian, legal guardian, or person acting in loco parentis can sign.² Once a student turns 18, they file on their own behalf.¹ College and university students in Hawaii also sign for themselves.

The All-or-Nothing Rule

Read this before you start filling anything out. Hawaii Administrative Rules § 11-157-5 states plainly that “requests for religious exemptions based on objections to specific immunizing agents will not be granted.”¹ The form itself asks you to initial a line acknowledging this.³

The practical effect: if your religious beliefs conflict with immunization, filing the exemption declines the whole schedule. If you only object to one vaccine, this form is not the path.

What Counts as a Religious Objection

Hawaii recognizes religious objections only. Personal or philosophical objections do not qualify, and the form says so directly: it “may not be used for personal or philosophical reasons.”³ You certify that immunization conflicts with your “bona fide religious tenets and practices,” the standard set by HRS § 302A-1156.² No clergy signature is required. Concerns about vaccine ingredients or a general preference for natural health do not count on their own; the objection has to be religious.

Where to Get the Form

The form is issued by the Hawaii Department of Health. For K-12 students, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education says religious exemption forms “may be completed at your child’s school.”⁴ Ask the school’s health clerk or registrar. Post-secondary students request the Epi 7B form through their college’s health services or student affairs office.³ Private schools and licensed childcare facilities keep copies through their own administration.

How to Complete It

The form is short, but it has to be filled out completely. Based on the Department of Health’s post-secondary version, you’ll provide:

The student’s full legal name, date of birth, and home address.
The name and street address of the school, childcare facility, or post-secondary institution.
Your initials on three separate certifications: that immunization conflicts with your bona fide religious tenets and practices; that you understand the student can be excluded from school during an outbreak; and that you understand a vaccine-specific exemption will not be granted.
The signature and date. A parent or guardian signs for a minor; an adult student signs personally.

The form also includes a statement confirming you understand the benefits and risks of the required vaccinations, the risk of contracting vaccine-preventable diseases, and the risk of transmission to others.³ Miss any of the three initial lines and the form is incomplete. Read each line before you initial it.

Make a copy of the completed form for your own records before turning it in. Schools file the original in the student’s health record, and having your own copy saves trouble if the file goes missing or the student changes schools.

Where to Submit It

Turn the form in at the school where the student is enrolled or enrolling. For public K-12 schools, that means the health clerk or registrar’s office during registration.⁴ Private schools and childcare facilities handle it through their own admissions or administrative offices. Post-secondary students should confirm the correct office on their campus; at some colleges the dean of students office receives the form rather than a health center.

Under HAR § 11-157-5, the school keeps the certification in the student’s health record and reports the exemption to the Department of Health in the format DOH requires.¹ You do not file anything separately with DOH. If you hand-deliver the form, ask for a date-stamped copy. If you mail it, certified mail with return receipt gives you proof of delivery.

What Happens During an Outbreak

An approved exemption does not guarantee uninterrupted attendance. HRS § 325-34 provides that no religious objection “shall be recognized when, in the opinion of the director of health, there is danger of an epidemic from any communicable disease.”⁵ One of the initialed certifications on the form is your acknowledgment that during an outbreak, the exemption will not be recognized and the student will be excluded from school until the Department of Health determines the threat has passed.³

The exclusion is open-ended. Under HAR § 11-157-6.2, it lasts “until the director has determined that the presence or danger of the outbreak or epidemic no longer exists.”⁶ For a disease like measles that could stretch to several weeks. Worth planning for.

If You Transfer Schools

The signed certification stays in the health record at the school that accepted it.¹ When a student moves to a new school or childcare facility in Hawaii, the new institution will check immunization records at enrollment. Records transfers between schools are not always immediate, so bring your own copy of the completed form to registration and expect to verify the exemption with the new school’s health office.

1
Cornell Law Institute. Hawaii Code of Regulations 11-157-5 – Exemptions
2
Justia. Hawaii Code 302A-1156 – Exemptions
3
University of Hawaii Maui College. Request for Exemption From Vaccination on Religious Grounds
4
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education. Student Health and Immunization Requirements
5
Justia. Hawaii Code 325-34 – Exemptions
6
Legal Information Institute. Hawaii Code of Regulations 11-157-6.2 – Provisional Attendance