California is First State to Announce COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements for Schools

Source: Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom

At a school in San Francisco, Governor Newsom announced plans to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the list of vaccinations required to attend school in-person when the vaccine receives full approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for middle and high school grades, making California the first state in the nation to announce such a measure. Following the other first-in-the-nation school masking and staff vaccination measures, Governor Newsom announced the COVID-19 vaccine will be required for in-person school attendance—just like vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and more.

“The state already requires that students are vaccinated against viruses that cause measles, mumps, and rubella – there’s no reason why we wouldn’t do the same for COVID-19. Today’s measure, just like our first-in-the-nation school masking and staff vaccination requirements, is about protecting our children and school staff, and keeping them in the classroom,” said Governor Newsom. “Vaccines work. It’s why California leads the country in preventing school closures and has the lowest case rates. We encourage other states to follow our lead to keep our kids safe and prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

Thanks to the state’s bold public health measures, California continues to maintain the lowest case rate in the entire country and is one of only two states to have advanced out of the CDC’s ‘high’ COVID transmission category. More information about the announcement can be found here.

The vast majority of school districts have reported that over 95% of students have returned to in-person instruction this school year, as can be seen on the state’s Student Supports & In-Person Dashboard. Thanks to unprecedented resources and public health measures (measures shown to be highly effective), California is leading national trends in preventing school closures and keeping kids in classrooms, accounting for only 14 out of over 2,000 school closures nationwide, or roughly 0.7% – despite the fact that California educates an estimated 12% of the nation’s public school students. If California’s rates had aligned with national trends, the state would have seen upwards of 240 school closures.

In order to further protect students and staff and continue supporting a safe return to in-person instruction for all students, the Governor directed the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to follow the procedures established by the Legislature to add the COVID-19 vaccine to other vaccinations required for in-person school attendance—such as measles, mumps, and rubella—pursuant to the Health and Safety Code. COVID-19 vaccine requirements will be phased-in by grade span, which will also promote smoother implementation.

Upon full FDA approval of age groups within a grade span, CDPH will consider the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Family Physicians prior to implementing a requirement. Following existing statute, full approval of ages 12+ corresponds to grades 7-12, and full approval of ages 5-11 corresponds to grades K-6. Students who are under the age of full approval, but within the grade span, will be required to be vaccinated once they reach the age of full approval (with a reasonable period of time to receive both doses), consistent with existing procedures for other vaccines. The requirement will take effect at the start of the term following full approval of that grade span, to be defined as January 1st or July 1st, whichever comes first. Based on current information, the requirement is expected to apply to grades 7-12 starting on July 1, 2022. However, local health jurisdictions and local education agencies are encouraged to implement requirements ahead of a statewide requirement based on their local circumstances.

Governor Newsom’s historic $123.9 billion Pre-K and K-12 education package is providing an unprecedented level of school and student funding to transform the state’s public schools into gateways of equity and opportunity, supporting the potential of every California student by: achieving universal transitional kindergarten for four-year-olds by 2025, expanding afterschool and summer programs, providing universal free school nutrition, increasing the number of well-prepared staff per pupil, creating full-service community schools to support the mental and social-emotional well-being of students, and more.

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  1. This will go a long way to getting that portion of the population who refuse the jab to get jabbed. In California. A recent article suggested that less than 40 percent of the eligible Black and Latino residents were fully vaccinated, or 60 percent are NOT vaccinated. Interesting how some folks refer to these POC as “loonies” because they are not fully vaccinated. Loonies? Really? Funny how bullying and shaming is the way some of you think is best to get people vaccinated. News Flash: Bullying and Shaming does not work (unless you have “White Guilt”…..errr, “W” privilege). LOL at the bullies and shamers. Don’t work….the shaming and bullying that y’all insist on doing is counter-productive.

  2. Ah yes, the truth that you folks so despise. Oh well, at least I’m happy with my strawman hallucinations if by that you mean…..the truth. Namaste my good friend. May you live a long, happy, and prosperous life.

  3. While this shouldn’t be an issue, this will inevitably give fuel to the youtube/reddit warriors in our divided nation to wage keyboard war with anecdotal evidence, twisted facts, and general paranoia. I feel bad for the kids that will inevitably now become homeschooled by uneducated parents setting them up for a life of failure.

  4. Between 1/1/2020 and 10/2/21 there were 5,248 pediatric deaths in California, 46 died with covid (not necessarily from). If this is the risk threshold we’re going to move forward with we’d save a lot more young lives by mandating they wear helmets in motor vehicles. Even if the FDA eventually approves the use on young children, it has to not only be safe but there also needs to be a benefit. When there is only a small benefit, even small risks can outweigh that benefit.

  5. Mandating something for young children before the FDA has determined it’s both safe and beneficial, while at the same time exempting groups who make large political donations to the person doing the mandating, reeks of nefarious political activities, disregards any “science”, and is yet another excellent example of why we need to get money out of politics.

  6. VOR, do we really have to explain how this works, again, a year and a half in? It is not only about the children who get it. It is about the spread exacerbated by children in close-contact indoor school environments, who then go home and spread it among their family, who then go out in public and spread it among the neighborhood, etc, etc. Remember, immunocompromised folks cannot get a vaccine, or have insufficient immune response to a vaccine that leaves them vulnerable, by no fault of their own. This is not just about you. This is not just about the children. Think bigger.

  7. What exactly is fantasy? The millions of dollars prison guard unions gave Newsom to fight the recall, who are now exempt from vaccine mandates, while working in an area that is at very high risk of covid outbreaks?

  8. so all this for a few immunocompromised folks who can’t get the vaccine? Read this CDC study below, while serious adverse reactions are rare, they do occur. How many children have to have serious reactions to be worth saving one immunocompromised person? If we vaccinate every child in CA how many will die as a result? It won’t be zero! Will it be more than the 46 that have already died with covid? Unfortunately time will tell. Give me several years of data and studies on how it impacts prepubescent kids (medically speaking they are not just little adults) before I sign my kids up (who have all their other shots and the annual flu shot.
    https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7031e1.htm

  9. I’ve said it here many times. But this has nothing to do with the individual risk of COVID to children. This has everything to do with stopping the overall spread and minimizing the risk of more dangerous variants. I am not concerned about my children’s safety from getting COVID. I am concerned that uncontrolled spread will cause a vaccine resistant variant to breakthrough and put us back to 2020. Personally, I’m sick of dealing with the paranoia from people either afraid of COVID or afraid of the vaccine. I’ve moved on, but we need to get to normalcy and the only way to do it is to get to some level herd immunity. The fastest way to herd immunity is by vaccination and last I checked SB County is only at 58% fully vaccinated.

  10. https://www.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report/
    If a child gets covid there is a .1%-1.9% chance they’d end up in the hospital and 0.00%-0.03% the could die (these include those with serious underlying symptoms). These extremely low probabilities leave very little room for a vaccine to provide more benefit than it’s risks, even if those risks are very small. NO, I don’t think it’s ethical to subject children to something that might be as risky to them as the actual virus, simply to potentially save the immunocompromised who can’t get it.

  11. So many here unfortunately still think we can vaccinate covid away. We can certainly minimize covid hospitalizations and deaths, but if it doesn’t eliminate transmission, and there are non-human hosts that can carry covid, covid-19 is not going away. It sucks but that is reality.

  12. Thank goodness we live in a reasonable state. The fact that the cases and hospitalizations are down are all fact proof the vaccine and masks is working. One school district in Florida had 10 teachers/administrators die of Covid this school year. The school my sister works for in Florida was ravaged by Covid in the first week of school with both students and teachers being hospitalized. If you can’t live with public heath rules – move to another state, or work remotely and home school. We don’t have time for anti-vaccine nonsense any longer – you are a minority and have been overruled.

  13. What in the world are you talking about. With a higher rate of vaccination – and new anti virals in the pipeline, we can make covid endemic. Sane people have had enough of the anti-logic and anti-science crowd. Your time has come – dismissed!

  14. Sadly since we didnt get 70+% quick enough ( and still dont) and people stopped wearing masks And started in going into crowds and ignoring protocols we are here. We cant wish it away becuase of the section of
    Society that feels they need to
    Be special. Thats the most polite way i
    Can word this. Literally anti vax is what is keeping us where we are. Yet they complain about it.

  15. When its fda approved will you get it then? Doubtful, there is always some
    Other exscuse. The vaccine for
    Adults, same same formula for kids, just less of it. So fda approval
    Coming in HOT. Roll up those sleeves VOR! Ill save you a spot in line

  16. If every person is vaccinated (natural immunity apparently doesn’t count with Covid) how is it going away? We all still can get it and spread it. Some can still get sick and die. My whole family got vaccinated ASAP because a member of the family had asthma and social responsibility pressure. I’m super glad my kids were old enough to get it. I’m not sure I would be good vaccinating them (for Covid) if they were little.

  17. I got mine a while ago Pstar. And with how politicized the CDC and FDA have become, and how they’ve always been in bed with big pharma, I will be very cautious if/when they approve it for my little ones. Through their own actions they have lost a lot of credibility the past year.

  18. Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom (CA) admits in a recent article published by LA Times that his 12-year-old daughter has not yet received the jab despite being qualified. According to the governor, his daughter has a series of other shots to get first before she will get the COVID-19 vaccine. Go figure

  19. BUCKWHEAT – that is the problem though. It’s not like the anti-vaxxers are keeping to themselves. They’re out gleefully mingling with society and not doing a damn thing to protect themselves or others. I’d have no problem if they stayed home and took their choice seriously. Sadly, so many of them are the ones out their coughing in peoples’ faces, refusing to wear masks and basically just being jerks to everyone.

  20. It is interesting that in the Bronx, the Hasidic Jewish Community processed Covid without vaccines. Yes, most got it and many people died, but they now continue life in an intimate, un-masked and un-vaxed lifestyle such as they did pre-Covid. It is an exceptionally close, extended society which is to say, zero social distancing. I find it interesting because this segment of society now lives as they did pre-covid, something we all long for.

  21. It’s subtle but the crowd that was saying we’ll end Covid has finally come around to realising that of course it will be endemic. And as for Mandating kids before the science says it’s safe … we’ll that’s just humorously blatant anti science .

  22. Kind of like Biden with the booster announcement (and trump on a lot of it), it’s obviously better to let the science dictate policy. This announcement is wildly premature as the vaccine hasn’t been approved for kids and newsome assuming it will be and making announcements to that regard is ridiculous.

  23. I have no problem with anti vaxxers as long as they isolate themselves at home and keep their unvaccinated children isolated, too! And if for some reason they do get the virus, stay home. Don’t go to any hospital. It is okay to die at home!

  24. I’m vaccinated. That being said, I’m bewildered by the obsession other vaxxed people have about whether other people are vaccinated. There’s 8 billion people on earth… Covid will mutate. It’s going to be endemic. It’s amazing how desperate people are to micro manage other people when it truly doesn’t effect them. Step out of your bubble. Everyone has had or will get Covid… and everyone has seen the info and science about the vaccine.

  25. I do not know what percentage died, only that they now live as they did before Covid, minus those who passed. Close contact, no masks etc . Their stores will not enforce mask mandates, it is almost a different world.

  26. BIGUS- but most people long to live as they did pre-covid. This is an un-vaxed community that is doing exactly that and their ranks were not decimated. They believe in the immune system God gave them and it is working for the community as a whole.

  27. Why would anyone listen to a proven liar like trump? Or any politician? What really matters is what the CDC, FDA, and medical professionals advise. What they advise is to vaccinate as widely as possible, and mandate if necessary, as it seems to be.

  28. Anybody catch the New York Times retraction about children hospitalization by Covid-19.
    In an article published by New York Times reporter Apoorva Mandavilli on Wednesday, Times readers were told that “nearly 900,000 children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.” A correction issued on Thursday notes that the correct number is 63,000 between August 2020 and October 2021, which means Mandavilli exaggerated the number of child hospitalizations by 837,000 cases. Approximately 500 American children have eventually died from the disease. The exaggeration was included in a report on the debate surrounding whether and how to vaccinate children.

  29. gt – I am taking my own advice! I got vaccinated and encouraged my pRe GS to (as well as other adults). I don’t advocate for banning them from society or pushing the need for a kid mandate when 1) it hasn’t been approved yet and 2) as a group they (generally) don’t need it ! Why the obsession with what other people do? So I guess you are partially right, I am (strongly) judging the people on here who are militant in how they want to mandate (and essentially force) other people (and other people’s kids) to get it. It’s silly my good man… silly!!!

  30. But give me a logical counter argument GT. if vaccinated can spread it and keep it going, how can football stadiums and concert halls and bars full of people be OK but unvaccinated should be locked down (or up!) as you have so eloquently written in the past. For kids, Covid is not something to really fear. They have a much much higher chance of dying from a car crash, a much much higher chance of drying from a firearm, from drowning, from heart disease and from the flu/pneumonia.
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/22699019/covid-19-children-kids-risk-hospitalization-death
    At this point, the only logical thing to mandate would be an antibody test.

  31. CA is first state in nation. Hmm. Is Newsome ahead of the curve OR off on his own in uncharted territory making up his own rules? Is he suddenly a public health expert? Outsmarting the CDC? A virologist? Where’d the degree come from?

  32. Yes, the ultra Orthodox Jews paid a high price with the elderly and weak dying. My point was/is that they, unlike most, are enjoying a pre-covid lifestyle NOW. They fear Covid naught as they live their lives normally and enjoyably. Big Pharma has nothing over Mother Natures immunity, though the media propaganda spouts otherwise.

  33. DUKE- Yes! We all have to get on with our lives and not micro manage fascism. Yes, everyone has had covid or will contract it (variants) and that is life…and death. The strong will survive the remainder not so much. Assuming that this came from nature, it may be one of nature’s means of bringing an out of control population down in numbers.
    More and more vaccinated are showing up positive and we are told that at least it will “lessen the disease effects”. Last time I checked a vaccine is supposed to prevent the illness, though that efficacy isn’t panning out.

  34. Since you Butt Snorkelers have proven to be such abject failures with your Faux News talking points on COVID, climate science, and politics, perhaps it’s time you tried a new and different conspiracy hucksterism. This is just the thing for you:
    https://birdsarentreal.com
    (Maybe you’ll inadvertently do some good. Oops! Shouldn’t have mentioned that.)

  35. If covid is so dangerous as to have Newsom announce a mandate for children before it is even approved why wouldn’t his daughter be ready to get the shot the minute she turned 12? Probably for the same reason his son was at an indoor mask -less camp and he went and dinned indoors with several people outside his household, maskless, while he was mandating the entire state of CA to do otherwise.

  36. Please ask yourself this question and be honest with yourself. If President Trump mandated these very same vaccines, how would you respond? If he said he would mandate them for your children even before the FDA approved it?

  37. You didn’t seem to comprehend that the influenza aftereffects were not as broad as the COVID ones, and less severe. But, twisting things out of context is what you do, along with whataboutism (which you current tack is, also), and projection.

  38. I think you are twisting the truth. Even though the vaccine was developed under Trump, we had people like Fauci telling us as much of the truth as they were allowed, which gave us confidence. Many people got the vaccine under emergency approval before Biden’s term started because of this. No one is able to mandate vaccines under emergency approval, right?

  39. No you just didn’t understand your own cited report. It pretty clearly shows similar long term effects of Covid and Influenza, even pointing out that since no one follows up on long term influenza effects (while there is follow up on Covid) that’s playing into it.

  40. VOICE – “If President Trump mandated these very same vaccines, how would you respond?” Once again, despite you bemoaning this very tactic, you’re doing it again. Politicizing and making this partisan. I, as most educated adults, trust and listen to our doctors and medical experts. I don’t care what any politician says and neither should you! This is a health issue, 100% always has been always will be! You insist on polarizing it and making it political, just like Trump did. I wouldn’t (and didn’t) trust a darn thing he spewed out over those 4 ridiculous years, but I DID wear a mask and social distance DESPITE him saying it wasn’t necessary. I, again like all the other grown ups in the country, listened to our health experts, not politicians.
    Stop living your life based on what/what not a politician said or does. They are not your doctors!

  41. This crisis has brought out the worst in people as evidenced by these rude protesters. We Americans are brought up to revere our Freedom, particularly our Individual Freedom. A large number of Americans would die before relinquishing sovereignty over their bodies, whether it be by Covid or whatever. The vax mandates are both communistic and fascist, the antithesis of that which we were taught. Time will tell whether the vaxed or the un-vaxed will fare the best. Technically, this is phase 3, the first Human trials of these experimental new drugs, and given the trial size it will be a disaster if it goes wrong. We shall see.

  42. From the very study you sighted @ 4:13 “Finally, we note that almost 43% of patients after influenza had at least one long-COVID feature recorded (Table 1) including 29.7% during the 90- to 180-day period. In this regard, we suggest researchers take a broad and balanced view as to the nature and specificity of long-COVID.”

  43. VOICE – wasn’t asking you, but since you want to butt in…. the vaccine is a health care measure, not political. As you keep yelling at everyone, “stop making this political.”
    OK, so let’s say your definition of fascism is accurate. “Dictorial power?” It’s a global pandemic, we need to do everything we can to stop it. Doctors and scientists are begging us to get vaccinated so we can slow the spread. They don’t have the executive power to enforce it (other than the brave docs refusing to treat anti-vaxxers), so the politicians must. “Forcible suppression of opposition?” No one is suppressing anti-vaxxers. Removing outright lies and misinformation is not “suppression,” it’s the free market at work, allowing private companies to decide what to have on their sites. Anti-vaxxers aren’t being rounded up and marched to camps, they’re being told to make a choice. Get vaxxed or submit testing results or find a new job. You wouldn’t have lasted a minute under a real dictatorship.
    Next, communism. Here’s the definition from Britanica: “Communism, political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society.”
    Explain how vaccine mandates are “communistic?”

  44. Again, if covid was so incredibly dangerous as to require a Gov. to mandate it for all children, then not have his own children ready to receive it when they become eligible, how dangerous could it possibly be? Is there a pertussis pandemic going around that I wasn’t aware of? Oh that’s right, his kids go to private school so the public school requirements don’t apply to his kids. Rules for thee but not for me! Don’t you ever get tired of making excuses for them?

  45. 8:28 – Yes, exactly. Glad you looked at the site I cited, and realized that about one in three people who had COVID ended up with long COVID. Also, as you note, influenza may manifest some of the same enduring effects, so it’s wise to get immunized against both diseases. Were you trying to twist that into saying something else?

  46. Some of the statements from the cited study that VOR chose to cherry-pick around:
    “As shown in Fig 2 and Fig A in S1 Fig, the incidence of each and any long-COVID feature was significantly higher after COVID-19 than after influenza”
    “The absolute risk increase of any long-COVID feature after COVID-19 compared to influenza was 16.60%”
    Compared to influenza, “Long-COVID features are seen to co-occur more commonly after COVID-19”
    “The clinical feature network was found to be more interconnected post-COVID-19 than following influenza… The network became significantly more interconnected over time”
    “Finally, among people who had a given long-COVID feature reported at least once, the total number of recorded occurrences of that feature was significantly larger among patients with COVID-19 than patients with influenza”
    “COVID-19 appears to be associated with long-term effects that are common and diverse, with 57% of patients having at least one long-COVID feature recorded in the 180 days after infection (Table 1 and Fig 1) and 37% having them in the 90 to 180 days after diagnosis, of whom 40% had not had one in the first 3 months. These features are all more common after COVID-19 than after influenza.”

  47. “Why would anyone listen to a proven liar like trump?”
    Or VOR, for that matter. Of course, if he told me that exercise is good for me, I wouldn’t stop exercising just because he said so … but that’s the structure of his cockamamie logic.
    What VOR does isn’t reasoning, it’s apologetics … starting with a desired conclusion and then crafting arguments that seem to support it, rather than following the evidence and logic wherever it leads. This explains the cherry picking, selective quotation, evasion, whataboutism, changing the subject, etc. and we can see all of that here. What sort of person would offer such a blatant misrepresentation as “Both our current president, vice president, and many other current political leaders have spoken publicly about not trusting or wanting a vaccine produced under Trump so I have a pretty clear idea how a Trump vaccine mandate would have gone done” which is based on a ridiculous RW talking point that took something Kamala Harris said completely out of context? A conniver, that’s who.

  48. The whole thing has been wildly politicized by both sides. Sad and dangerous. I know Republicans, Independents and Liberals who are all refusing to get vaccinated…as well as people from each group that are still terrified of leaving their house despite being vaccinated. The abject failure of our elected officials throughout this Pandemic has been startling.

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