COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Students Delayed by Los Angeles School Board

A nurse administers a pediatric dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to a girl in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 19, 2022. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

The Los Angeles school board delayed the implementation of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students for a second time in 2022.

The school board had first announced that it would enforce a vaccine mandate for all Los Angeles students starting in January 2022 but later delayed enforcement until the start of the 2022–2023 school year.

But the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a measure that delays the mandate after a proposal from Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, according to the Los Angeles Unified School district in a news release. Now, the vaccine rule will be delayed until at least July 1, 2023, according to the ordinance.

“This was the right move at the right time, perfectly endorsed by science,” Carvalho was quoted by the Los Angeles Times saying. He said that his recommendation was made owing to the vaccine rate among older students, while noting that school transmission rates are relatively low.

A vaccine mandate for Los Angeles school employees will remain intact.

The “vote shows that we are a science-based school district, and the health and safety protocols we adopt are influenced by the expert advice of our medical partners and public health officials,” Carvalho said in the news release. “We know that students do best when learning in the classroom with their peers. Due to the high vaccination rates among students 12 and older, low transmission rates in our schools, and our nation-leading safety measures, we have preserved in-person learning in the safest possible environment.”

In the meantime, district officials said they plan to give information about COVID-19 vaccines. They will also make them available to students.

“Our schools are some of the safest places for the students we serve,” Board President Kelly Gonez said in the release. “With our nation-leading safety standards, as well as our high rate of vaccinated students over 12, the conditions we find ourselves in have greatly improved. Today’s decision demonstrates that as circumstances change and evolve.”

So far, several lawsuits have been filed against the school district’s vaccine mandate, although a judge in December denied a request from two parent groups to block the rule.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, initially announced plans for a statewide vaccine requirement for kids to attend school in October 2022. However, his office did away with those plans last month, according to reports at the time.

Currently, only the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine is available to children aged 5 to 15 via an emergency-use authorization. Meanwhile, a recent poll found that only 18 percent of parents of children under the age of 5 would get their child vaccinated right away for COVID-19.

COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.