About 2 percent of New Jersey school children got religious exemptions from vaccines.
TRENTON -- The number of New Jersey school children who skipped vaccines for religious reasons topped 9,500 in the 2015-16 school year, according to the state health department.
That number has been steadily climbing but represents just 2 percent of New Jersey's the 506,000 preschool, kindergarten, first and sixth graders in the state, according to state data. It's nearly 600 percent higher than the 1,641 whose parents requested a religious exemption a decade ago.
Medical exemptions have steadily declined, with 1,303 requested in the 2014-15 school year compared to 1,592 the previous year.
Under New Jersey's religious exemption policy, parents and guardians can submit a signed statement indicating "immunization interferes with the free exercise of the pupil's religious rights." No other documentation is required.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently issued a statement saying that as a last resort, it's OK for doctors to stop seeing patients who refuse their shots. The Academy also urged states to repeal laws that have allowed parents to use religion as an excuse for not getting their children inoculated, saying this poses a health risk.
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An attempt to make it tougher for New Jersey families to get the religious exemption by requiring they explain how vaccines "would violate, contradict, or otherwise be inconsistent" with their religion failed in the last legislative session. It was opposed by the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice, which said lawmakers should not judge a parent's religious beliefs.
Among New Jersey counties, Hunterdon had the highest percentage of religious exemption requests (4.8 percent), while Hudson had the lowest (0.9 percent).
Here is a county-by-county breakdown of how many school children have been granted exemptions from vaccines:
Atlantic: 264, representing 1.8 percent of all students
Bergen: 1,367, 2.5 percent
Burlington: 397, 1.6 percent
Camden: 343, 1.2 percent
Cape May: 115, 2.8 percent
Cumberland: 145, 1.5 percent
Essex: 770, 1.5 percent
Gloucester: 244, 1.6 percent
Hudson: 349, 0.9 percent
Hunterdon: 294, 4.8 percent
Mercer: 247, 1.1 percent
Middlesex: 545, 1.2 percent
Monmouth: 1,189, 3.5 percent
Morris: 783, 2.7 percent
Ocean: 715, 2.5 percent
Passaic: 520, 1.7 percent
Salem: 42, 1.3 percent
Somerset: 410, 2.2 percent
Sussex: 226, 3.4 percent
Union: 402, 1.2 percent
Warren: 139, 3.0 percent
State total: 9,506, 1.9 percent
Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.