Florida could make vaccines optional. Would you still vaccinate your child?

Florida wants to end vaccine mandates, including for the mandatory shots kids now need to attend school.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo say they want to end the mandates and let parents decide which vaccines, if any, their children should get. That would make Florida the first state in the country to scrap school vaccine mandates.

For future stories, the Miami Herald wants to talk with parents about the possible changes to mandates. If vaccines were to become optional for school, would you still vaccinate your child?

Fill out the form below and let us know. A reporter may reach out to you, but your response won’t be shared in our coverage unless you give your permission.

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Michelle Marchante

Miami Herald

305-376-2708

Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription