A new bill that adds COVID-19 vaccines to California’s list of requirements for attending K-12 schools was introduced Monday morning.
Leaders from San Diego Unified School district and Los Angeles Unified School district joined Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) in announcing Senate Bill 871, to close the personal belief exemption loophole for school-based vaccination requirements. This legislation would add COVID-19 vaccines to the list of current state-mandated vaccines at public schools if signed into law.
The only way children would be allowed to attend in-person school without being vaccinated is if parents provided medical exemptions for their children. Booster shots are not discussed in the bill.
In October 2021, Newsom announced a statewide school vaccination mandate, but state law only permits the legislature to remove personal belief exemptions. Pan’s legislation would overrule Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide mandate, which does not require the vaccine until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approves the shot for children 12 and older, and permits parents to opt their children out of the vaccine for personal beliefs among other reasons.
Under the bill, the California Department of Public Health may mandate vaccines without requiring the state to offer personal belief exemptions.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has full approval for those ages 16 and older, and there is an emergency authorization in place for kids five to 15. Newsom's mandate also allows parents to opt their child out of the vaccine for personal beliefs, among other reasons.
On Thursday, Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 866, which would permit children 12 and older to choose to be vaccinated, including against COVID-19, without a parent’s consent or knowledge.
This announcement comes as LAUSD and SDUSD attempted to implement vaccine requirements for their districts, faced with legal challenges that paused those efforts.
Interim school district Supts. Megan Reilly of LAUSD and Lamont Jackson of SDUSD implored legislative leaders in a letter on Jan.21 to enact statewide vaccination for public schools.
A judge struck down SDUSD’s vaccine mandate, which would have gone into effect on Jan.24, citing the district’s lack of authority to impose such mandates. However, the vaccination mandate holds for district employees, resulting in over 70 letters of termination sent out to those, not in compliance.
Officials at LAUSD postponed the enforcement of student vaccines until the fall since thousands of unvaccinated students would be forced into the independent study in the middle of the school year.
If passed, the bill would be slated to go into effect on Jan.1, 2023.
