The Professional Charter School Board (PCSB) voted at its monthly meeting Wednesday to file an amicus brief in the school vaccination case currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.
The court agreed last December to review an order from the Raleigh County Circuit Court in response to a petition from the West Virginia Board of Education(BOE).
In November, Raleigh County Judge Michael Froble granted a permanent injunction against the BOE in Miranda Guzman v. State Department of Education. Froble wrote in a published order that the Equal Protection for Religion Act (EPRA) applies to the state’s vaccine requirements and required the board to accept religious and philosophical exemptions to the state’s compulsory vaccine law.
The court issued an order halting Froble’s order in December.
While not directly involved in the case, the PCSB’s amicus brief – also known as a “friend of the court” brief – would be focused on religious liberty to assist the court in making its decision.
“I think it’s, from a religious liberty point of view, a valuable thing for us to do, and that we have unique information about how vaccine exemptions for religious reasons have played out in our charter schools,” Adam Kissel, PCSB chairman, said.
Board member Chanda Adkins said allowing religious exemptions to the state’s vaccine requirements would help bring West Virginia in line with 45 other states.
“We will look, you know, just appealing for anyone who wants to come to West Virginia, to see that we are doing what the majority of the country is doing,” she said. “As we see students’ enrollment dropping, we want to see our student enrollment increase.”
Adkins currently serves as president of West Virginians for Health Freedom, a nonprofit that educates “parents on the school admission required vaccination schedule along with the risks associated with each vaccine,” according to their website.
The brief would once again put the charter school board at odds with the state Board of Education on the issue of school vaccinations.
The PCSB voted last summer to advise schools to follow Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s executive order and accept religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions certified by the state Board of Health.
Morrisey issued an executive order in January 2025 granting religious and philosophical exemptions to the state school vaccination requirements.
The move prompted the BOE to send a letter to the PCSB asking it to comply with existing state vaccine laws.
Current state law says children must be vaccinated for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before beginning school.
The PCSB is separate from the West Virginia Department of Education, but it and the charter schools it authorizes, are subject to the general supervision of the BOE.
The board will finalize the language of its brief at its next meeting May 7.
