By Ann Marie Henninger

My husband and I have been licensed foster parents nearly eight years. We’ve worked hard to obtain and maintain our license to provide love, consistency and stability to children in foster care. Our license is currently for children ages 0-6. As of this writing, we have in our home a lovely blend of biological and foster children; we are blessed!

I am writing to express my ardent opposition to the new Washington Administrative Code (WAC), which requires that all members of a foster family accepting placement of children under age 2 must be vaccinated annually against the flu. The deadline for compliance with this new rule is Feb. 27.

It makes little sense to require this of foster families when others involved in the child’s life are exempt, including but not limited to biological families, health care workers, visit supervisors/transporters, daycare providers, social workers and the foster children themselves!

Additionally, bio parents have the ability to refuse the shot … or any vaccinations for that matter … for their child residing in foster care, but foster parents do not have that same option for their own children.

As a nurse with a history of caring for critically ill infants and a wife married to a health care professional, our skill set is perfect for caring for medically fragile infants and toddlers. We will no longer be able to provide this service at the renewal of our foster license when the state rules we are “non-compliant” because we won’t vaccinate every member of our family against the flu each year.

The state will then force against our wishes an amendment of our license to care only for children older than 24 months.

The vaccine itself has risks and is no guarantee that one will not come down with influenza. It’s a guessing game annually to try to figure out which strains of the influenza virus will be most prevalent against which to craft a vaccine. This year, clearly, that attempt to come up with the right one was a failure since the vaccine is only 23 percent effective.

By the numbers

The decision to implement this WAC will result in the loss of qualified and passionate foster families who will either quit fostering altogether or raise their age limit of dependent children accepted rather than submit to the government mandate that they vaccinate their entire families against their will and better judgment. It’s already happening.

In Yakima County where there are 490 foster homes, 7 percent of them already have opted to adjust their license to foster children over age 2 rather than get the vaccination.

Who then will care for these young children? Indications are that placement agencies already are scrambling to find homes for very young children entering foster care. Currently there are 4,800 foster families who care for some 8,500 children in our state, including about 1,000 younger than age 2.

This WAC also may mean that sibling groups in foster care could be split up if one of them is under 2 years of age and placed in a foster home which is not flu vaccine-compliant. Currently, 24 percent of kids entering care are under 2; if you add their siblings to that, you are approaching 50 percent of foster children who are directly affected by this WAC. They will be separated for lack of bed spaces for the littlest ones.

Additional reasons why I am opposed to this mandate: It is not enforceable at all times of the year; there is NO other state that requires this kind of vaccination of foster families; it demonstrates the devaluation of foster parents in this state; it is a waste of child welfare resources to use time, staff and funds to determine who is and isn’t complying … resources that would be much better spent on foster parent recruitment, retention and appreciation.

This new WAC is an unjust and intrusive government mandate to require that every member of a foster family be vaccinated annually against the flu.

This WAC was passed without input from those of us “serving in the trenches,” providing homes and love to children who have experienced trauma and come to us with multiple behavioral issues.

This WAC is an additional and burdensome hoop to jump through in order to become licensed foster parents in Washington, as arduous enough process as it is!

Ann Marie Henninger is a Sequim resident.