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DISTRICTS - SCHOOLS - HEALTH - IMMUNIZATION - CONSTITUTIONALITY OF IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENT FOR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE Certain proposed legislation now pending before the state legislature (see Senate Bill No. 2241 and House Bill No. 502) to require specified immunizations of school age children as a prerequisite for admission to public or private schools would, if enacted as drafted, be constitutionally valid.

Honorable Hubert F. Donohue Chairman Senate Committee on Ways and Means 103 Public Lands Building Olympia, Washington 98504

Dear Sir:

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In addition, 5 provides that:

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Those are matters of legislative judgment with which the courts will not interfere unless it can be said that they are arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable.

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These two constitutional provisions, although somewhat differently worded, have been consistently construed to have the same basic meaning;

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At least in broad outline, the limitations that our state constitution thus expressly place on the right to free exercise of religion have been read into the First Amendment by the Supreme Court.

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"The legislature shall provide for a general and uniform system of public schools.

Yours very truly, SLADE GORTON Attorney General

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BRIAN J. COYNE Assistant Attorney General

1/Senate Bill No. 2241, and its identical counterpart, House Bill No. 502. 2/To fall within the ambit of the due process clause, children excluded from school for lack of certification of the required immunizations

3/

Shea v. Olson, 185 Wash. 143, 153, 53 P.2d 615, 111 A.L.R. 998,

4/197 U.S. at 25, 23 S.Ct. at 360-61, 49 L.Ed. at 648-49. 5/419 U.S. at 576, 95 S.Ct. at 735, 42 L.Ed.2d at 736. 6/419 U.S. at 579, 95 S.Ct. at 738, 42 L.Ed.2d at 737. 7/ 8/419 U.S. at 582, 95 S.Ct. at 740, 42 L.Ed.2d at 739.

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9/In

10/As stated by the court in

11/The compulsory school attendance law, RCW 28A.27, [[chapter 28A.27 RCW]]should present no due process problem either.

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