Since COVID-19 vaccinations have been produced and permitted to be administered to children, an extremely hot topic in family court has been whether the court will enter an order permitting a parent to have the parties’ child receive the COVID-19 vaccination over the other parent’s objection. The decision of whether to allow a child to receive any vaccination is a legal custody decision. When the parties reach an impasse regarding a legal custody decision, the trial court is the tie breaker. The recent case LLB v. TRB, ___ A.3d ___, 2022 Pa. Super. 161 (September 21, 2022) is the first reported appellate case addressing the COVID-19 vaccine in the child custody context.

In LLB, the parties had shared legal custody of their daughter. The mother sought to have the child receive the COVID-19 vaccine and the father objected thereto. The mother filed a petition for special relief requesting permission for the child to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The mother also filed an amended petition thereafter. In her petition, the mother alleged that the “Child’s pediatrician and school strongly recommended that the child receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The mother also averred that the child wants to receive the COVID-19 vaccine so she can participate in certain activities without interruption or quarantine due to an unvaccinated status.” The mother also alleged that the school district notified all parents that “if a child is determined to be in close contact with another student exposed to COVID-19 and if that child is vaccinated, the child would not be required to quarantine; whereas unvaccinated children who have a close contact exposure will be required to quarantine and restricted from in-person learning.”