Statewide Student COVID Vaccine Mandate Delayed Until 2023

LOS ANGELES, CA — California officials pushed back a controversial mandate requiring all students aged 12 and over to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to attend in-person classes, officials announced Thursday. The mandate won't take effect until at least July of 2023.

Also on Thursday, a state lawmaker pulled his bill —Senate Bill 871 — that would have added the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of required inoculations ineligible for personal-belief exemptions, the Los Anges Times reported. Together, the moves ease pressure on parents and students hesitant about the vaccine.

State health officials, however, are strongly urging parents to get their eligible children vaccinated especially with the contagious BA.2 Omicron variant spreading in California. Though less effective at preventing Omicron infection in children, the vaccines have been proven to reduce serious illness in children as well as adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the mandatory student vaccine in October, but he left the timeline open, making the deadline dependent upon the U.S. Food and Drug Administration giving full authorization to the vaccine for use on children aged 12 and over. The mandate wasn't supposed to go into effect until the semester after full approval is given. So far, however, the shots are being offered to that age group only on an emergency-use basis.

"To ensure sufficient time for successful implementation of new vaccine requirements, California will not initiate the regulatory process for a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the 2022-2023 school year and as such, any vaccine requirements would not take effect until after full FDA approval and no sooner than July 1, 2023," according to a statement issued Thursday by the California Department of Public Health.

State Public Health Director Dr. Tomás Aragón said that despite the delay, he still "strongly encourages" all eligible residents — including children — to get the shots. Vaccinations are available for everyone aged 5 and older.

Some school districts, including the state's largest — the Los Angeles Unified School District —have imposed a COVID vaccine mandate of their own. The Los Angeles School District's will not be formally instituted until at least this fall. Despite that delay, the district reported recently that 90% of its students aged 12 and older have already been vaccinated.

In pulling his bill limiting exemptions to the student COVID-19 vaccine mandate, State Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) told the Times he's concerned about unequal access to the vaccine across the state. The bill faced immense backlash from anti-vaccine groups and parents because it would have essentially made a medical exemption the only way for students to avoid getting inoculated in order to attend school.

“Until children’s access to COVID vaccination is greatly improved, I believe that a statewide policy to require COVID vaccination in schools is not the immediate priority, although it is an appropriate safety policy for many school districts in communities with good vaccine access,” Pan told the Times..

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.