Last year, California was the first state to announce that it would require all school children to receive the coronavirus vaccine. But it hasn’t happened yet because Newsom said he was waiting for regulators at the US Food and Drug Administration to give final approval to the vaccine for school-age children.
At the time, Newsom estimated that the mandate would take effect at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. But while federal regulators have authorized the use of the coronavirus vaccine for children as young as 5 in an emergency, they have not yet given final approval to those under 16.
As the calendar inched toward the fall, school administrators worried they might not have enough time to implement the vaccination mandate.
“So, based on these two facts, we do not have full FDA approval and we recognize the implementation challenges that schools and school leaders would face, that we are not going to have a vaccination requirement for schools in this coming academic year. and no sooner than July 2023,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, California Secretary of Health and Human Services, said in an interview.
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The move comes at a time when coronavirus cases and hospitalizations remain low following the winter surge of the omicron variant, but also as authorities struggle to convince parents to vaccinate their children against the virus.
While almost 75% of California’s population has been vaccinated, the rates for children under 17 are much lower. Just under 34% of children ages 5 to 11 have received the vaccine, while just over 66.4% of children ages 12 to 17 have received it, according to state data.
“From the perspective of keeping kids in school, this was the right decision,” said Christina Hildebrand, president and founder of A Voice for Choice Advocacy, a group that opposes vaccination mandates. “The number of children who are not vaccinated, and if they were withdrawn from school, it would have been a much bigger disaster.”
California and Louisiana are the only states that have announced a vaccination mandate for K-12 schools, according to the National Academy of State Health Policy. The District of Columbia also has a mandate.
The Louisiana mandate includes an opt-out option for parents, while the California mandate would allow exemptions for medical reasons and personal beliefs. A medical reason often requires proof from a doctor. But a personal beliefs exemption is easier to obtain, often requiring a letter from the student or parent stating their objections.
State Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat who is also a pediatrician, authored a bill in the state Legislature this year that would have prevented students from using the personal belief exemption to avoid the coronavirus vaccine. But on Thursday, Pan announced he would retain the bill, meaning it won’t become law this year, though he said there should still be a focus on increasing childhood vaccination rates.
“Until children’s access to COVID vaccination improves significantly, I believe that a state policy requiring COVID vaccination in schools is not the immediate priority, although it is an appropriate safety policy for many school districts in communities with good access to vaccines. Pan said in a press release.
Pan did not say that he withdrew the bill due to lack of support. A poll by the Institute for Government Studies at the University of California, Berkeley found that 64% of registered voters support coronavirus vaccination requirements for schools, including 55% of voters who are parents of children. school age. The poll was released in February based on a sample of 8,937 registered California voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
This is the second vaccine-related bill to fail in the California Legislature this year before it comes to a vote. Last month, Democratic Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks withdrew a bill that would have required all California businesses to require coronavirus vaccinations for their employees, a decision she attributed to “a new and welcome chapter in this pandemic, with the virus receding for the time being”.
As coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have dropped, state officials have lifted most virus restrictions, no longer requiring masks in schools or other public places.
“Definitely a lot of parents are excited that Senator Pan is getting this bill out. It’s one less thing they have to worry about,” said Jonathan Zachreson, a father of three high school kids who founded the advocacy group Reopen California Schools. . “The fact is that children ages 5 to 11 have had access to vaccines for quite some time and I think their low vaccination rates are evident in how parents feel about the vaccine.”
Other vaccine-related bills remain in the California Legislature, including one that would allow schoolchildren ages 12 and older to receive the coronavirus vaccine without parental permission. Currently, California requires parental permission for vaccinations, unless they are specifically to prevent a sexually transmitted disease.
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