The state’s policy on compulsory vaccination requirements is suspended in response to a circuit court ruling in Raleigh County published Wednesday.
The West Virginia Board of Education released the following statement Wednesday afternoon: “In light of the Nov. 26, 2025, circuit court ruling in Raleigh County, the West Virginia Board of Education hereby suspends the policy on compulsory vaccination requirements as outlined in W.Va. Code 16-3-4, pending further proceedings on the issue before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.”
Judge Michael Froble granted a permanent injunction against the board in Miranda Guzman v. State Department of Education, requiring the board to accept religious and philosophical exemptions to the state’s compulsory vaccine law (CVL). Froble wrote in a published order that the Equal Protection for Religion Act (EPRA) applies to the state’s CVL. The law says children must be vaccinated for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before beginning school.
“The Court’s ruling does not repeal or modify the CVL. Rather, the Court holds that it is Defendants’ enforcement of its no-religious-exemption policy that violates the law (here, EPRA). The CVL remains intact otherwise,” Froble wrote. “As such, the Court finds that EPRA’s protections of religious freedom in West Virginia extends to cases, including the matter currently before this Court, where the government substantially burdens a family’s religious objections to complying with the CVL or where the government permits comparable activity from a risk perspective.”
Last month Froble granted class action status, meaning his ruling affects the more than 500 people who have obtained exemption certificates from the Department of Health. At the time he argued that the creation of a class action would prevent each recipient of an exemption from filing their own lawsuits all over the state.
The defendants in the case have petitioned the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to halt the class certification.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order in January, granting religious and philosophical exemptions to the state school vaccination requirements. A bill seeking to modify the state’s vaccination requirements did not pass the West Virginia Legislature this year, casting doubt on the legal basis for Morrisey’s executive order and religious exemptions.
However in May the governor published a letter detailing how families seeking a religious or philosophical exemption can apply to the Bureau for Public Health.
In June, the state Board of Education voted unanimously to direct Superintendent Michele Blatt to advise schools to follow current vaccination requirements without religious exemptions.
Soon after, with the backing of the governor, Raleigh County mother Miranda Guzman filed a lawsuit against the state board, and the Raleigh County Board of Education arguing that its denial of religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements infringed upon her child’s religious freedom.
“Today’s ruling is a win for every family forced from school over their faith,” Morrisey wrote in a press release. “I will always take a stand for religious liberty and for the children of this state. I applaud the court for upholding West Virginia’s Equal Protection for Religion Act.”
He went on to call on the legislature to “solidify this freedom for every West Virginian.”
Several other lawsuits both for and against the vaccine exemptions remain pending across the state, and the Supreme Court has already issued a timeline to receive written arguments in its review of the Guzman case.