The N.C. Court of Appeals, weighing in on the debate over vaccinations and religious freedom, has ruled that a Charlotte couple can't keep their children from being immunized while in foster care.

Jack Stratton, the Charlotte father fighting a high-profile battle against accusations of child neglect, has said his Christian faith dictates that his 10 children not be immunized.

The Mecklenburg Department of Social Services, acting under a court order, took his children into foster care last year after accusing him and his wife of neglect. The agency wants the children immunized against diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella.

States across the country require children to be vaccinated, especially before attending school. Some parents have objected to the shots on religious or medical grounds, and many states, including the Carolinas, allow exceptions to the rules.

The Court of Appeals ruling, issued Tuesday, affirms parents' right to take religious exemptions, but said the Strattons lost that right when a Mecklenburg court ruled they had neglected their children.

Of the 105,000 N.C. kindergartners entering school in 2001, authorities granted 203 religious exemptions. In South Carolina, fewer than 1 percent of students take religious exemptions each year, officials said.

Public health officials say the failure to vaccinate can lead to developmental delays and seizures. However, many anti-vaccination parents have started grass-roots groups across the country, including one in Mecklenburg called People Advocating Vaccine Education, or PAVE.

DSS removed the Strattons' children in January 2001 after accusing the couple of keeping them in a run-down Eastway Drive duplex and neglecting to provide adequate shelter, clothing, food, medical care and education.

The Strattons have said they moved to appropriate housing and never failed to give their children proper care or decent home-schooling. They have accused social workers of exaggerating to take their children away.

Reviews by two state agencies found no wrongdoing by local authorities.

Jack Stratton has taken his case to the media, waging a war of words with county and court officials. He was released from a Mecklenburg jail Thursday after being arrested for disobeying a court order to stop talking publicly about the case.

In an April 2001 hearing, Stratton said the Bible speaks against vaccinating children. "The Bible says, `In the beginning, God created the heavens and Earth. God created mankind and God said it was good.' That includes the immune system," Stratton said.

"Jesus Christ said that ... the well do not need a physician but the sick (do)," Stratton added at the hearing. "And I believe it's wrong to take perfectly healthy children and subject them to possible brain damage, possible side effects."

In July 2001, Mecklenburg District Judge Libby Miller ordered the children be immunized, saying it was in their best interests.

The Strattons objected, saying no court had terminated their parental rights, so they still had legal standing to make medical decisions for their children.

The question hung in the balance for more than a year while the Court of Appeals considered it. The appeals court blocked the children's vaccinations until it could rule.

In Tuesday's opinion, the state's second-highest court said children must be immunized before attending school, unless that conflicts with the "bona fide religious beliefs" of a parent, guardian or other custodian. But the court, before considering the Strattons' religious objection, noted that local courts have already ruled that the children were neglected. That, the appellate court said, leaves the Strattons with no legal standing to block the vaccinations.

"We agree that the parental rights of care, custody and control over a child are held in high regard and will not be interfered with lightly," the court said. But because of the neglect ruling, "DSS is now the only party that may legitimately make health decisions for the Stratton children."

Stratton said he will appeal to the N.C. Supreme Court. He said his children have been accepted into school under the religious exemption, and he can't understand why the courts and social workers still want to immunize them.

"That just shows they want to force their personal beliefs on us," he said Friday. "They don't like the way we raise our children."

Tyrone Wade, the lawyer for DSS, said the agency won't do anything until the Strattons appeal. "We will just wait and see what happens," he said. "If the Supreme Court elects not to hear (the case), the Court of Appeals order stands."