How to Get and Complete the Texas Meningitis Vaccine Exemption Affidavit

To claim a conscience or religious exemption from Texas’s college meningitis vaccine requirement, you file a Texas meningitis vaccine exemption affidavit: the official Department of State Health Services form F11-11755, signed in front of a notary and turned in to your school at least ten days before the semester begins. Since September 1, 2025, you can download the blank affidavit as a PDF straight from the DSHS website instead of requesting it by mail or fax and waiting for delivery.¹

Do You Actually Need to File One

The vaccination requirement under Texas Education Code § 51.9192 applies to entering students under 22 at Texas colleges and universities, meaning first-time freshmen and students returning after sitting out a full fall or spring semester. If you are 22 or older by the first day of the semester, taking only online courses, enrolled in continuing education under 360 contact hours, a dual-credit student on a K-12 campus, incarcerated in a Texas prison, or on active duty in the U.S. armed forces, the mandate does not apply and you do not need to file any exemption. Confirm your status with your registrar; some schools ask online-only students to submit a short attestation form.²

One boundary to know before you file: a conscience exemption can be suspended during a declared public health emergency, disaster, or terrorist attack in the area where your school is located. If that happens, you could be required to vaccinate even with an approved affidavit on file.²

Getting the DSHS Affidavit Form

The form has a stock number: F11-11755. It has tracking features that schools use to verify authenticity, so a handwritten letter or a generic notarized statement will be rejected. It has to be the DSHS form.¹

The fastest route is to download the PDF from the DSHS immunization exemptions page. If you would rather have DSHS mail you a paper copy, or the download isn’t working, you can still request one:

Online request at co-request.dshs.texas.gov
Written request by mail to Department of State Health Services, Immunizations, MC-1946, P.O. Box 149347, Austin, TX 78714-9347
Fax to (512) 776-7544
In person at the DSHS offices in Austin

Mail and fax requests must include your full name, date of birth, complete mailing address with phone number, and the number of forms you want (up to five). The phone number lets DSHS reach you if the mailing address turns out to be undeliverable.¹

Filling Out and Notarizing the Affidavit

The affidavit is short. You enter your full legal name and date of birth, then sign a statement declining the bacterial meningitis vaccine for reasons of conscience, which includes religious beliefs. The form also has language confirming you understand the benefits and risks of both getting the vaccine and skipping it.³

Do not sign the form before you get to the notary. This is the single most common mistake. The notary has to watch you sign, verify your identity, then stamp and sign the document. A form that arrives at the notary pre-signed cannot be notarized, and your school will reject it. Bring a valid, unexpired government photo ID: driver’s license, state ID card, or passport all work.

Notaries are easy to find. Most banks, UPS stores, and shipping centers offer notary services, and many campuses have a notary at student services or the registrar’s office. In Texas, a notary can charge up to $10 for the first signature and $1 for each additional signature.⁴

Submitting the Affidavit to Your School

Turn the completed, notarized affidavit in directly to your college. Many Texas universities route immunization compliance through Med+Proctor or a similar third-party platform: you create an account, upload a clear scan or photo, and the system flags it for review. Other schools take documents through the registrar’s office, student health center, or an internal upload tool. Your enrollment checklist should tell you which applies.

Once the school processes the exemption, the immunization hold should drop off your registration, and you should get a confirmation in your student email or portal. If two weeks pass and the hold is still there, contact the office that handles immunization records. Documents get lost sometimes.

The Ten-Day Deadline

Texas law requires vaccination documentation or an exemption to be on file at least ten days before the first day of your first semester. Schools can grant individual extensions of up to ten days after the semester starts, but not every school grants them automatically, so treat the pre-semester deadline as the real one. Missing it typically triggers an enrollment hold that blocks you from adding, dropping, or registering for classes until you comply. Students in health-related programs sometimes face earlier internal deadlines; check with your program.²⁵

If you’re requesting the form by mail, build in extra time for DSHS processing and postal delivery. The download route avoids that entirely.

How Long the Affidavit Lasts

A conscience affidavit is valid for two years from the date of notarization, not the date you signed it and not the date you submitted it. If it expires while you’re still enrolled, you have to redo it: new form, new notary visit. Put the expiration date somewhere you’ll actually see it, because schools don’t always warn you before placing a hold for lapsed compliance.⁶

Community College Students Can Sometimes Skip the Notary

Texas law lets public community colleges (but not four-year universities) offer a secure, internet-based conscience exemption process, with no paper affidavit and no notary. Not every community college participates. The statute says colleges “may elect” to offer it. Where it exists, you complete the request online after confirming you understand the benefits and risks. Check your community college’s immunization page before going the paper route.²

If You Need a Medical Exemption Instead

The conscience affidavit isn’t the only path. If the meningitis vaccine would be harmful to your health, a licensed MD or DO in good standing in any U.S. state can sign a medical exemption. No DSHS form is required for this one: a letter or certificate on the physician’s letterhead is enough, as long as it states the doctor’s opinion that the vaccine would be injurious to your health and includes the physician’s signature, contact information, and the date. A medical exemption is valid for one year from the physician’s signature date, unless the letter documents a lifelong condition, in which case it does not expire.⁶

1
Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas Immunization Exemptions
2
State of Texas. Texas Education Code Section 51.9192 – Bacterial Meningitis Vaccination Required for Certain Students; Exceptions
3
Texas Department of State Health Services. Affidavit Exemption From School or Child-Care Immunizations for Reasons of Conscience
4
Texas Secretary of State. Notary Public Educational Information
5
Texas Department of State Health Services. Requirements
6
Legal Information Institute. 25 Texas Administrative Code 97.62 – Exclusions From Compliance