Florida Catholic school vaccine exemption dispute

In late July 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops urging Catholic schools that receive state voucher funds to grant religious exemptions for vaccinations. He warned that refusal could jeopardize the schools’ eligibility for state scholarship programs supporting hundreds of thousands of students.

A few days later, the AG followed up with a more detailed notice, reiterating the threat of funding loss and setting an August 7 deadline for a response. The follow‑up highlighted that Florida law already requires both public and private schools to allow religious vaccine exemptions, noted that the Archdiocese of Miami’s students receive substantial state scholarships, and cited Catholic bioethics guidance to argue that vaccines derived from fetal cell lines are not intrinsically evil.