Students and staff at Sacramento City Unified now have a local COVID-19 vaccination deadline.
The school board voted Tuesday to require students aged 12 and older to show proof of at least one vaccine dose by the start of the second semester. Teachers, meanwhile, need to show proof by November 30th. If a student fails to meet the requirement, they will have to enroll in independent study, or switch to homeschooling.
Newsom earlier this month announced the nation's first coronavirus vaccination mandate for schoolchildren, but with no firm deadline yet set. The state's timeline is dependent on when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would fully approve the vaccine for those ages 12 and older. Currently, full use is only authorized for children 16 years and older, while emergency authorization was allowed for students 12 years and up, according to KCRA3. Once federal regulators fully approve it for that younger group, the state will require students in seventh through 12th grades to get vaccinated in both public and private schools.
Newsom said he expects that requirement to be in place by July 1.
As well as the elementary districts, University of California students, staff and faculty must also get a flu vaccine by November 19th. The University of California currently has mandatory orders for those on campus to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and exempts those for religious reasons. The 10-campus university is allowing people to opt out of the vaccine by Nov. 19 as well. People can opt out of the flu vaccine, but they wear face masks on campus through the end of the flu season.
“With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, the potential confluence of infections from COVID-19 and influenza poses a threat to the health and safety of the UC community and the public at large,”officials said in a UCnet article.