All Kids In The California School System Must Now Be Vaccinated

The California law requiring all public and private school students be vaccinated against up to 10 diseases, depending on age, as well as those in daycare, is in effect.

On July 1, SB277 went into effect, requiring day care attendees, kindergartners, seventh grade students, and all new students to be vaccinated before they can attend a public or private school in California, regardless of personal or religious beliefs, notes SCPR. Medical exemptions are still allowed.

As the new school year begins in the state, school districts are dealing with students who failed to get the required vaccinations, even though the districts reached out to parents who had previously filed personal or religious exemptions in order to tell them they would need to comply with law.

The Santa Ana Unified School District started contacting parents in the spring, according to Doreen Lohnes, the district’s assistant superintendent for special education and health services.

Classes in that district started two weeks ago and 130 kids, who were mostly in the seventh grade, had not yet been fully vaccinated, Lohnes said. The students were prohibited from attending class and kept in a school office area where they were given work assignments.

Lohnes’ most recent check found just nine students who were not in compliance with the vaccination law.

“It did require an effort, and it did require a push, and dissemination, publicity and follow up, but the result is a really good one,” she said.

In the Riverside Unified School District, 46 students arrived to school without the proper vaccinations and were not allowed to register for classes, according to Tim Walker, assistant superintendent for pupil services. The kids were referred to a health center in order to obtain their vaccinations and all returned to school the next day.

Only four seventh graders in the Los Angeles Unified School District came to school without their whooping cough booster shot and all four have since been vaccinated.

The law has been argued against, and a petition to place a measure on the November ballot that would have asked residents whether they wanted to keep the law in effect fell short of the required signatures.

A lawsuit was filed in July by six parents and four advocacy groups arguing that the law violates the California Constitution’s guarantee of a public education for all children, SCPR reported.

“[The law] has made second-class citizens out of children who for very compelling reasons are not vaccinated according to the [CDC] schedule,” Robert Moxley, the plaintiff’s attorney, said at the time.

The California Department of Public Health and the California Department of Education are named as defendants in the case, which is ongoing.

Sources: SCPR (2) / Photo credit: Carlos Reusser Monsalvez/Flickr