Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 76 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 15B the following section:-

Section 15C. No full-time student under thirty years of age or any full-time or part-time undergraduate or graduate students in a health science who is in contact with patients shall, except as hereinafter provided, be registered at an institution of higher education except upon presentation of a medical certificate that such student has been immunized against measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus and diptheria; provided, however, that a student may be registered at such institution upon certification made, in writing, by a physician who has personally examined such student and in whose opinion the physical condition of such student is such that his health would be endangered by any such immunization; and provided, further, that students who have attended an elementary or secondary school in the commonwealth may submit a copy of their school immunization record, indicating receipt of the above required immunizations, in lieu of such certificate; and provided, further, that unimmunized students may be registered on the condition that the required immunizations be obtained within ten days of registration.

In the absence of an emergency or epidemic of disease declared by the department of public health, no student who states in writing that such immunization would conflict with his religious beliefs shall be required to present such medical certificate in order to be admitted to such institution.

SECTION 2. The provisions of section one of this act shall apply only to students in institutions of higher education entering as freshmen on or after September first, nineteen hundred and eighty-six; to such students entering as freshmen or sophomores on or after September first, nineteen hundred and eighty-seven; to such students entering as freshmen, sophomores or juniors on or after September first, nineteen hundred and eighty-eight; to such students entering as freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors on or after September first, nineteen hundred and eighty-nine; and to all undergraduate and graduate students on or after September first, nineteen hundred and ninety and to all such students thereafter. The provisions of section one relative to health science students shall apply to all such students on and after September first, nineteen hundred and eighty-six.