Amish families in upstate New York are confronting an impossible choice: violate their deeply held religious convictions and vaccinate their children, or face financial destruction at the hands of state bureaucrats.
Three small Amish private schools have been cited for allowing unvaccinated children to attend class, triggering fines that could reach astronomical levels. Under New York’s enforcement scheme, each noncompliant child carries a penalty of roughly $2,000—and that fine multiplies with every single school day the child remains in attendance.
With 59 children already cited, a single additional day of school pushed the total fines to $118,000. The families say they simply cannot pay.
World’s Healthiest Children
A major new investigation found that Amish children are free from the chronic conditions that are affecting young children across the rest of the world.
A study conducted by the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation (VSRF) found that Covid death rates among Amish communities are an incredible 90 times lower than the rest of fully-vaxxed and boostered, mask-wearing and locked-down America.
A Religious Exemption Stripped Away
For decades, Amish communities in New York operated under a religious exemption from school vaccination requirements. That changed in 2019, when state lawmakers—citing a measles outbreak concentrated in Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn—voted to eliminate the religious exemption entirely.
The move left groups like the Amish, who have historically avoided vaccination for religious and cultural reasons, with no legal protection for their beliefs.
Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the repeal into law immediately, stating at the time that “religious freedom” did not outweigh what he characterized as public safety risks.
The Legal Battle Continues
The Amish have not gone quietly. Several Amish community schools and their officials filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the repeal violated their First Amendment free exercise rights. They pointed to Wisconsin v. Yoder, the landmark 1972 Supreme Court case that affirmed Amish parents’ right to withdraw their children from formal schooling after eighth grade based on religious convictions.
The case took a dramatic turn when the Supreme Court vacated an initial dismissal and sent it back to the Second Circuit for reconsideration in light of a 2025 ruling that favored religious objectors in a different context. But in June 2026, the Second Circuit again affirmed the dismissal, holding that New York did not act unconstitutionally when it eliminated the religious exemption.
Crushing Fines, Impossible Math
The financial stakes for these small Amish schools are staggering. With approximately $2,000 per noncompliant child multiplied by each day of attendance, the fines compound at a rate that makes compliance economically impossible for families who refuse vaccination on religious grounds.
State officials maintain that every day an unvaccinated child attends school constitutes a fresh violation. For the 59 children already cited, the meter is running.
Families Contemplate Exodus
With the legal avenues exhausted and the fines mounting, Amish families are reportedly considering fleeing New York altogether. For a community that has historically sought to live peacefully apart from state interference, the prospect of leaving homes and established communities represents a profound disruption.
Some observers note that New York’s enforcement has grown increasingly aggressive. The state health department has even launched investigations into what it calls “pediatric vaccination fraud,” signaling a hardline posture toward any form of noncompliance.
New York is one of a handful of states that have eliminated religious exemptions. California did so in 2015 following a measles outbreak at Disneyland, and Maine followed suit in 2019. But New York’s enforcement mechanism—with per-day fines that quickly balloon into six-figure sums—stands out for its severity.
For the Amish, the conflict is not about science or public health statistics. It is about whether a community with centuries of tradition can raise its children according to its own understanding of faith and conscience. The state of New York has answered that question with a clear and expensive “no.”