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Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement on Friday that students in Kindergarten to Grade 12 will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 next year drew mixed reactions from education officials and families in County of Sonoma.
The country’s first tenure will add coronavirus inoculation to a list of 10 vaccines that California law already requires students to receive to attend school in person. It will not come into effect until the Food and Drug Administration gives full approval for children’s marksmanship. This authorization will be issued at different times for different age groups.
Steve Herrington, superintendent of schools for Sonoma County, said on the one hand he was happy to see the state take the lead in a key safety measure. The announcement, he said, “relieves local districts” of building their own mandates.
“We are very well positioned for this term in Sonoma County,” he said. On Friday, 71.6% of local young people aged 12 to 17 were partially or fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, he said.
Still, Herrington said, the requirement will place another demand on school staff to track immunization data among their students, at a time when staff shortages and various COVID protocols have already stretched the workday.
“This is another unfunded mandate,” he said. “This is my concern. There has to be some kind of support for all of these requirements to be implemented, and we don’t have the staff.
Anna Trunnell, superintendent of schools for the city of Santa Rosa, said her district’s preparation time will affect the stress of the transition.
“(The announcement) leaves me with a lot of questions,” she said.
Children 12 and older will fall under the deadline first, as the FDA issued emergency clearance for use in this age group in May, and full clearance is expected before the end of the year. Approval for a vaccine for students aged 5 to 11 will come at a later date, and vaccines for this age group have not yet received emergency approval.
The start of any academic term following full FDA approval will be the deadline for students in that age group to verify immunization with their school. The deadline could be in January or July, although the California Department of Public Health said in guidelines released Friday afternoon that it viewed July 2022 as a more likely deadline.
“If it starts in January, what does it do for my endowment? What does this do for the independent study? Said Trunnell. “If this were to be implemented in July, we would certainly have more time to prepare. “
The immunization mandate Newsom introduced in August for all school staff, volunteers and contractors will also tighten as deadlines for students approach. These groups currently have the option of having weekly COVID tests if they are considered unvaccinated. Next year, this option will be phased out.
Amid a staff shortage, from substitute teachers to cafeteria workers and bus drivers, officials have expressed concern over further losses of staff refusing to be vaccinated.
“I think for most of the state of California, the daily struggle is just to keep the doors open,” said Adam Schaible, superintendent of the Wright Elementary School District. “We barely have enough people to oversee lunch and recess. If a vaccination warrant has a further negative impact on that, that will be a problem. “
Some parents, in emails to The Press Democrat, have expressed their intention to remove their children from school in person when the deadline arrives.
Jennifer McGrath, a mother of five who attend schools in three different districts in Sonoma County, said she will not vaccinate her children against COVID yet, although she is making sure they receive all other required vaccines. .
“There is no long-term research on side effects,” she wrote in an email. “In fact, research on short-term side effects in children is still being collected… I’m not an anti-vaccine, but neither am I someone who jumps on board because someone else. one said so. “
But other parents have expressed support for the mandate.
“The vaccine is approved for use, so of course it joins the ranks of required vaccines,” said Marrin Waldron, parent of a Steele Lane Elementary student. “If people don’t like it, they can do what anti-vaccines have been doing for years, and homeschool.”
Schools in Sonoma County have seen relatively few instances of the site-based spread since the school year began about a month and a half ago. As of 515 reported school-related cases as of Friday, 76 – about 15% – were linked to confirmed or locally reported exposures, according to the Sonoma County Department of Health Services.
The local test positivity rate also remains low, at 2.1% on Friday, indicating that the spread of the virus is low. Cases among vaccinated and unvaccinated residents have been trending down since early August.
Dr Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley, said it was unclear what the COVID landscape might look like when vaccine deadlines kick in. But he applauded the choice. from Newsom to plan ahead.
“I think you better be careful,” Riley said. “It takes time to really plan and implement this type of new mandate, so the governor starts letting people know early on that this is something that could happen.”
Schaible echoed the view that more time to prepare for any upcoming changes is useful, to prepare for impacts on students and staff. He’s not sure how things might turn out when the deadlines get closer.
“Usually over 99% of our children are vaccinated with the (mandatory) vaccines,” he said. “But I don’t know if that will affect that. This is different. “
You can reach Editor-in-Chief Kaylee Tornay at 707-521-5250 or [email protected]. On Twitter @ka_tornay.
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