Maryland Kinship Care Vaccination and Immunization Consent

A child moves in with you suddenly, and the school says they can't attend without up-to-date immunization records. The parent is unreachable. You're left standing in a pediatrician's office wondering whether you can even authorize a vaccination.

You can. Maryland's Health-General § 20-105 affidavit gives a relative caregiver authority to consent to standard childhood immunizations while it remains valid; a conflicting court order or a parent's objection overrides that authority. And if school enrollment is urgent, there's a process for that too.

Your Affidavit Covers Vaccinations

The Consent for Health Care Affidavit — Form DHS/SSA/554 — explicitly authorizes routine preventive care, and that includes all standard childhood vaccinations. You don't need a separate immunization consent form. The same affidavit you use for doctor visits and dental care works.

The eligibility requirements are the standard kinship care thresholds: you must be related within the fifth degree of consanguinity or affinity, the child must live with you full-time, and the living arrangement must result from one of Maryland's six statutory hardships.

Maryland School Immunization Requirements

Maryland requires specific vaccinations for school enrollment. The Maryland Department of Health Form MDH 896 (the immunization certification) documents a child's vaccination status. Every student needs a completed MDH 896 on file.

Required vaccines vary by grade level but generally include DTaP, polio, MMR, hepatitis B, varicella, and for seventh graders, Tdap and meningococcal conjugate. The Maryland Department of Health publishes the current schedule each school year.

When you're enrolling a child midyear, the school must admit the student immediately — even if immunization records are temporarily missing. You then have a reasonable window to get the records transferred from the child's previous provider or to schedule catch-up vaccinations.

What If You Don't Have the Child's Vaccination Records

This is common in kinship placements. The child arrived with a backpack and nothing else.

Steps to track down the records:

1. Contact the child's previous pediatrician — they can fax records to your new provider
2. Call the previous school district, which keeps immunization records on file
3. Check Maryland's ImmuNet (the state immunization registry) through the child's new pediatrician — providers can query the system
4. If no records can be found, ask the pediatrician whether blood testing can help. Maryland accepts blood test verification of immunity for polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, or varicella, but not for diphtheria, tetanus, or pertussis.

Don't let missing records delay school enrollment. Enroll the child with your kinship care affidavit and proof of residency. Maryland law requires immediate enrollment; the immunization documentation can follow.

Religious and Medical Exemptions

Maryland allows medical exemptions and religious exemptions for students whose parent or guardian objects because of bona fide religious beliefs and practices. Both are documented on MDH Form 896; the religious exemption does not apply during an emergency or epidemic of disease.

For a medical contraindication, a medical provider or local health department official completes the medical section of MDH Form 896. Your DHS/SSA/554 affidavit authorizes health care decisions under the kinship-care law, but it does not replace that medical certification.

Keeping Immunization Records Current

Vaccination schedules require boosters at specific intervals. When you file your annual affidavit renewal, it's a good time to check whether any vaccinations are due.

Keep a copy of the child's MDH 896 form in your records folder alongside the affidavit. Update it after every vaccination visit. If the child transfers back to a parent or to another caregiver, a complete immunization record prevents them from starting over.

Our Maryland School and Medical Consent Guide walks through the entire health care affidavit process, including how to set up records with a new pediatrician and track all medical and dental providers who have your affidavit on file.

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