By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO (California) – Los Angeles Schools won’t require coronavirus vaccinations for children until the fall according to a Friday announcement. This is the latest delay in the implementation of vaccine mandates in California public education.

This new policy will rescind the plan currently in place to enforce the January strict deadline for Los Angeles Unified Schools District. This would mean that the largest state school district, along with San Diego and Oakland, will be the last to delay the vaccination requirements for all children who are old enough to get them.

Megan K. Reilly, Interim Los Angeles Superintendent, described the decision as an example for the success of the vaccination program. She stated that 87% of students aged 12 or older had complied with the policy. According to her, the extension would allow other people to be inoculated.

She stated that “This milestone is significant, but there’s still plenty of time to get immunized.” The policy will be approved by the Board of Education on Tuesday. After that, all district students must continue to undergo weekly testing throughout January. The Board of Education would only test those students after that without requiring proof of vaccination.

California school districts are delaying their vaccination requirements at a time when infections and fatalities are rising anew in many places around the country and the national COVID-19 death toll https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/united-states nears 800,000.

Partly, the increase in cases is due to colder temperatures that have led to increased indoor activity. New concerns have been raised about the Omicron variant spreading, which is believed to be more easily transmissible than previous versions of the virus.

California became the first to require schoolchildren in California to receive COVID-19 shots. However, Governor Gavin Newsom was flexible about when the mandates would be implemented.

Los Angeles, Oakland and other cities had plans to allow unvaccinated students to enroll in online courses. With thousands of students still not vaccinated the districts feel the need to provide an alternative for forcing them out of school.

A federal appeals court in San Diego blocked San Diego’s public schools from applying its COVID-19 vaccination mandate to students last month. It was hearing an appeal made by a student at high school and her parents, who claimed that the vaccine violated their religious beliefs.