California scraps plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren

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California ended its plans to require COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren when the state ends its COVID-19 state of emergency on Feb. 28. This would effectively stop the state from adding COVID -19 vaccinations to the list of 10 vaccinations children require to attend school in-person in the state.

“The state’s SMARTER Plan continues to provide an adequate framework to address the current COVID-19 situation, and has led to the decision to end the COVID-19 State of Emergency on February 28, 2023,” the California Department of Public Health said in a statement. CDPH is not currently exploring emergency rulemaking to add COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of required school vaccinations, but we continue to strongly recommend COVID-19 immunization for students and staff to keep everyone safer in the classroom.”

HERE’S WHAT HOUSE REPUBLICANS HAVE ACCOMPLISHED ONE MONTH AFTER TAKING MAJORITY

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in October 2021 that California would become the first state in the nation to have COVID-19 vaccine requirements for schools. The vaccine requirement for children was originally set to start last year on July 1, 2022, but blowback from California parents and mounting lawsuits during Newsom’s election year led to a delay in the mandate. California pushed the mandate back to July 1, 2023.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) called the lifting of California’s vaccine mandate for children “a triumph for the growing parents movement.”

“The defeat of the child vaccine mandate is a triumph for the growing parents movement that is providing hope for California’s future,” Kiley wrote on Twitter.

The California congressman added, “To all the parents who joined together and fought back: We won. To Gavin Newsom: You lost.”

California Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) had proposed legislation in 2021 to require the vaccine and eliminate personal and religious exemptions. His legislation failed to pass in the state legislature with a Democratic supermajority.

Parents had organized numerous protests rejecting Newsom’s plan and legislative efforts by the state to mandate vaccinations on their school age children.

They continued their pressure on the local school districts when they filed three major lawsuits against the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Piedmont Unified School District and the San Diego Unified School District. The lawsuits led Los Angeles to delay its vaccine mandate for students to July 1. Piedmont voted to repeal its mandate, and in December 2022, an appellate court ruled that San Diego’s mandate violated state guidelines.

When a local television station asked protesting parents what would happen if their children weren’t allowed in school because of the mandate, parent Mariah Jones said, “Then we would have to homeschool them. How are we supposed to work and provide for our children? So it’s really not a choice.”

California Department of Education says homeschooling applications doubled from about 20,000 in the 2019 school year to 35,000 applications in 2021. College Prep Academy, a California-based homeschool program for students in grades 9-12, told a local news station that they had about 45 students in 2021 and then in 2022, about 90 students enrolled in their homeschool program. The school said the parents were largely enrolling over frustrations about evolving COVID-19 restrictions by the state.

In California, the vaccination numbers are higher than the national averages with 67% of 12 to 17-year-olds and 38% of children ages 5 to 11 having received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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Some are wondering if other states will follow California in lifting vaccine mandate requirements for schools.

Last November, the Washington, D.C., Council voted to delay a coronavirus vaccine mandate for students ages 12 and older until the 2023-2024 school year.

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Tags: California, Gavin Newsom, Vaccination, Education, Schools, Coronavirus

Original Author: Heather Hunter

Original Location: California scraps plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren