Whether you need permission from your ex to vaccinate your child will be found in your parenting order. In Illinois that order is the allocation judgment or parenting plan. It says who makes significant health decisions for your child: you alone, your co-parent alone, or the two of you together.
If you hold that responsibility alone, you can generally consent to a vaccine without the other parent’s agreement. If you share significant healthcare decision-making responsibilities, vaccinating your child over the other parent’s objection may violate your parenting order, depending on its specific terms. When shared-decision parents cannot agree, Illinois law requires the court to order mediation before it hears the dispute, unless the court finds a reason not to. If mediation fails, either parent can ask the judge to decide who makes the decision. If your co-parent has already vaccinated your child without asking you, what you can do depends first on what the order says about health decisions.
Key Takeaways
- Whether you can consent to a vaccine depends on what your parenting order says about health decisions. Having the child with you on the day of the appointment does not give you that authority.
- If the two of you share health decisions and you vaccinate over your co-parent’s objection, and by doing that you have violated the order, a judge can hold you in contempt for it even if the vaccine was the right call.
- When you cannot agree, Illinois law requires the court to order mediation first. If mediation fails, a judge can give one parent the decision, and an Illinois court has done that for a single vaccine while leaving the rest of the order unchanged.
- You do not have to prove the other parent is dangerous to get that decision. That higher standard exists for restricting a parent’s responsibilities, and a vaccine dispute can be resolved without it.
- Illinois schools require proof of immunization or a signed exemption at kindergarten, sixth grade, and ninth grade, and that deadline can force the decision.
Who Makes Medical Decisions for Your Child Under Your Parenting Order
Illinois no longer uses the words “custody” or “legal custody.” Under 750 ILCS 5/602.5, a court allocates significant decision-making responsibilities in four areas:
- Education, including the choice of schools and tutors.
- Health, including all decisions relating to the child’s medical, dental, and psychological needs.
- Religion.
- Extracurricular activities.
The court can give each area to one parent or to both parents jointly. It can also split them, so one parent may decide education while both share health.
Look at the decision-making section of your allocation judgment or parenting plan. If it gives you sole responsibility for health decisions, you can generally schedule and consent to a vaccine on your own. If it gives that responsibility to your co-parent alone, you cannot. If it says the two of you share health decisions, neither of you can decide alone.
Many parenting plans also say how the parents resolve a disagreement. Some require mediation, some name a tie-breaking parent for certain decisions, and some require the parents to follow the pediatrician’s recommendation. The specific terms of your parenting order should be reviewed alongside the applicable statutes.
During a parent’s own parenting time, the statute does give that parent sole responsibility for routine decisions and for emergencies affecting the child’s health and safety. A scheduled vaccination is a planned medical decision rather than an emergency. Having the child with you on the day of the appointment does not give you authority the order does not.
What Happens If You Vaccinate Without the Other Parent’s Agreement
If you need a joint decision for medical care, and you vaccinate without permission, you could subject yourself to contempt in court for violating a court order.
The other parent can file a petition asking the judge to enforce the order and hold you in contempt. The court cannot undo the vaccine, so the consequences fall on the parent who acted. The judge can find that you violated the order. If the judge finds you had no compelling cause for acting alone, you may be ordered to pay the other parent’s attorney fees.
The violation also becomes part of the record the next time either of you asks to change decision-making. A parent who acts alone over a clear objection gives the other parent grounds to argue that joint decision-making no longer works.
What to Do If Your Ex Vaccinated Your Child Without Your Consent
Start with the order. If it gave your co-parent sole responsibility for health decisions, they had the right to decide. Even if your ex has sole decision making for medical decisions, and you believe that your ex is not acting in your child’s best interest, you can bring the matter to the court. If the order required a joint decision, gather the proof. That means the text messages or emails showing you objected or that you were never asked, the appointment date, and the vaccination record.
With that in hand you can ask the court to enforce the order. You can also ask the judge to clarify or change how the two of you make future health decisions. The judge might require written agreement before any non-emergency treatment or give you the decision.
The court will not reverse a vaccine. It will decide future decision-making based on your child’s best interests rather than on which parent was wronged. It can make sure both parents follow the order from now on. It can also change the order if one parent has shown they will not follow it.
When Parents Who Share Health Decisions Cannot Agree on a Vaccine
Each parent is presumed to be acting in their child’s best interest and both parents may believe they are acting in their child’s best interest. There is not much middle ground on the subject. You cannot be “kind of vaccinated.”
Mediation First, Then a Request to the Court
Because neither parent’s view wins on its own, Illinois law gives the parents a process to follow. The law requires most parenting plans to include a mediation clause for disagreements about decision-making. A court will also order mediation before it hears the dispute unless there is a reason not to.
If mediation fails, the parent who wants the vaccine can ask the court to modify the allocation judgment under 750 ILCS 5/610.5. The court can change decision-making when circumstances have substantially changed, and the change is necessary to serve the child’s best interests.
A decision-making order less than two years old carries an extra step. Unless the other parent agrees or the change is minor, the parent must first file an affidavit. It has to show reason to believe the child’s present environment may seriously endanger the child’s health.
How One Illinois Court Handled a Vaccine Deadlock
The court does not have to rewrite the whole order. The parents in In re Marriage of Jones, 2023 IL App (1st) 221369-U, shared decision-making and had agreed on every other medical decision. The father would not consent to the COVID-19 vaccine, and mediation failed. The trial court gave the mother sole decision-making authority over that vaccine and its boosters only. The rest of the order stayed in place.
The appellate court affirmed on March 24, 2023. The judge relied on the child’s school and social disruptions and on public recommendations from the CDC, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the FDA. No expert witness was needed in this particular case. The order is unpublished, so it guides courts rather than binds them. It does show how a parent gets there: through mediation, and then a petition that asks for the narrow relief the situation needs.
Serious Endangerment Is a Different Standard
Under 750 ILCS 5/603.10, if the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that a parent engaged in any conduct that seriously endangered the child’s mental, moral or physical health, or that significantly impaired the child’s emotional development, the court shall enter orders as necessary to protect the child.
That is the standard for restricting a parent’s responsibilities, and it is a high one. Our article on that statute describes the kinds of cases that meet it: physical or emotional abuse, drug or alcohol abuse, a parent whose mental illness goes untreated, or removal of the child from the court’s jurisdiction. A vaccine dispute can go through the modification rules above without anyone needing to prove that the other parent is dangerous.
School Immunization Requirements Can Force the Decision
Illinois requires proof of immunization, or a valid exemption, when a child enters kindergarten, sixth grade, and ninth grade. Students entering twelfth grade also need a second dose of the meningococcal vaccine. A medical exemption comes from the child’s doctor. A religious exemption requires the Certificate of Religious Exemption, signed by the parent or guardian and by the health care provider who performs the child’s school health examination (a physician, advanced practice registered nurse, or physician assistant), confirming that the provider reviewed the benefits and risks of immunization with the parent. The school then decides whether it states a valid religious objection.
When parents disagree about a vaccine, a school deadline can bring the dispute to a head. A parent who sees it coming should start mediation well before the school year.
Before You Schedule or Refuse a Vaccine
- Read the decision-making section of your allocation judgment or parenting plan, including any clause about how medical disagreements are resolved.
- Put your position and your reasons in writing to the other parent, and keep the reply. That record matters in mediation and in court.
- Ask the pediatrician for a written recommendation. It is evidence the judge can consider, alongside public health guidance of the kind the court relied on in Jones.
- If the two of you share health decisions and cannot agree, request mediation under your parenting plan before filing anything.
- Do not schedule the appointment or file an exemption until the dispute is resolved or the order says you may.
Anderson Boback & Marshall’s child custody attorneys handle decision-making disputes, including vaccine disagreements, throughout Cook, DuPage, Lake, and Will Counties.
Frequently Asked Questions About Vaccines and Parental Decision-Making in Illinois
Can I vaccinate my child without the father’s permission in Illinois?
Only if your allocation judgment or parenting plan gives you sole responsibility for the child’s health decisions, or if there is another court order in place regarding the same. If you share health decisions, you need the other parent’s agreement or a court order. Parenting time does not change this. Having the child with you does not let you consent to a non-emergency vaccine on your own.
My ex vaccinated our child without my consent. What can I do?
If your order required a joint decision, you can ask the court to enforce the order and hold the other parent in contempt. You can also ask the judge to change how the two of you make future health decisions. The court cannot reverse the vaccine. If the order gave your ex sole health decision-making, they had the right to decide. Your remedy is a request to modify that allocation.
Can I take my ex to court for refusing to vaccinate our child?
Yes, after mediation if your parenting plan requires mediation first. You ask the court to modify decision-making so that you can make the vaccine decision. You will need to show a substantial change in circumstances and that the vaccine serves your child’s best interests. The pediatrician’s recommendation and public health guidance are the kind of evidence the court relied on in Jones. A court can give you the decision on that one vaccine without changing the rest of the order.
Can I get my child a flu shot during my parenting time if we share medical decisions?
Not without the other parent’s agreement. A flu shot is a planned health decision. The statute’s emergency exception for a parent’s own parenting time does not cover it. If your co-parent refuses and your plan has no tie-breaker, the dispute goes to mediation and then to the court.
