Bill Name: GRACE (Guaranteeing Religious Accommodation in Childhood Education) Act

Bill Number: HR-63

Bill Author(s): Representative W. Gregory Steube

Legislative Session / Year: 2025

State: Federal

AVFCA Position: Support

Bill Synopsis: This bill prohibits federal education funding to schools and agencies that refuse to provide students with a religious exemption to vaccine mandates, holding them to the same standard as the 46 states that already recognize such exemptions. The bill also:

- Bars federal education funding to elementary and secondary schools, as well as local and state education agencies, if they deny religious exemptions;

- Applies to vaccine requirements for school attendance, athletics, and extracurricular activities;

- Addresses the current policy in four states — California, New York, Maine, and Connecticut — that do not allow religious exemptions for school vaccination requirements

While AVFCA fully supports this bill, consistent with our mission to instate a Religious Exemption in California (hence our lawsuit on the issue), it has some issues that need to be amended. Therefore, AVFCA is working closely with Congressman Steube and his staff to ensure the GRACE Act does not inadvertently jeopardize states that currently allow only Personal or Conscientious Belief Exemptions. Requiring those states to create a separate Religious Exemption could risk PBEs being eliminated in the process. In addition, AVFCA is advocating to expand the bill’s scope beyond K–12 to include daycare and higher education, since most vaccines are administered before kindergarten entry.