California school vaccination mandate

On October 1st, 2021, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, mandated vaccines for all public and private school children who are eligible in California to be vaccinated against COVID-19. All of those in the San Dieguito Unified High School District will be affected.

According to the governor’s office, the mandate would go into force for grades 7 through 12 the semester after the US Food and Drug Administration’s complete approval of the vaccine for children ages 12 and older. After the vaccination is formally approved for younger children, students in kindergarten through sixth grade will be phased in.

The rule may go into effect for pupils aged 12 and above as early as January 2022 if a COVID-19 vaccination for that age group receives full federal approval, the governor said at a school in San Francisco. Only people aged 16 and up are currently able to get a vaccine that has received full FDA approval.

Students will not be able to attend classes on campus in person unless they have been vaccinated, just like any other necessary childhood immunization. Exemptions for medical and religious reasons will be available.

Unvaccinated students will be able to enroll in a completely online school, attend independent-study programs sponsored by school districts, or be homeschooled under the governor’s decree.

Schools and school districts will be responsible for enforcing the obligation, as they do with other mandated vaccines such as hepatitis B, tetanus, mumps, measles, polio, and chickenpox. For the COVID-19 vaccination, the governor stated that he is merely adopting the same standard.

In California, at least six school districts (including San Diego Unified) have already approved student vaccination mandates. SDUHSD has not issued their own mandate.