As of now, religious exemptions for measles vaccinations are out statewide.
"Basically within 14 days of the first day of school, all children must provide proof that they have been vaccinated," said New York State Health Foundation Sound President and CEO David Sandman.
The recent ban on religious exemptions, which passed the state legislature back in June and was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo immediatly, is the state's latest approach to control the measles outbreak which New York stands in the center of more than 1,000 cases. There are 90 schools across the state with children who have not been vaccinated.
"Thousands of children across New York state, excluding New York City who had a religious exemption from being vaccinated, about 1,200 are in the Central New York area," said Sandman.
Onondaga County has 450 religious exemptions, Broome has 179 and Oneida has 152.
"I think there are some families who will still hold very close the notion that immunizations are not suitable for their children. At this point I guess the only other alternative is to home school," said Head of Syracuse Hebrew Day School Laura Lavine.
"Schools are also required to be vaccinated and can be subject as a penalty for non-compliance even including all the way up to the closure of the school," said Sandman.
For those who still choose not to vaccinate, the new law could be a problem, but for administrators, they say it actually lifts a burden.
Under the old law, organized religions were not listed and it was up to the administrators to determine if a person could be approved for religious exemption.
"That is why I found the old law to be so terribly objectionable. Again, you're putting people in the position of judging other people's beliefs when that's not what school administrators wanted to do. It's not what they're trained to do and it's clearly not what they should have been doing," said Lavine.