One of the Los Angeles schools named Unified School District, which is dealing with more than 30,00 unvaccinated older kids, said on Tuesday that it will put out the deadline for its COVID-19 vaccination mandate to autumn 2022.
The contentious action in the nation’s second-largest school district suggests that other districts attempting to impose student vaccination requirements will face opposition at a time when the country remains sharply divided over vaccine mandates may face opposition as a result of the decision.
“We have not come to this decision lightly,” interim Los Angeles superintendent Megan K. Reilly said before the vote. “We have not reached to this determination carelessly.” Alberto Carvalho, the departing superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, will take over for her in the near future, according to the board, which also approved his contract on Tuesday.
Many were surprised to learn that the city of Los Angeles had intended to transfer kids who had not been vaccinated by a January 10 deadline to its online school, City of Angels. Many, however, were concerned about the school’s capacity to absorb tens of thousands of extra students at the start of the next semester, as well as the disruption it would create to staff and students.
Los Angeles was one of the first school districts to impose a mandatory immunisation requirement on students. The school board agreed in September to compel children 12 and older to get immunised by Jan. 10, regardless of age.
Students in Los Angeles schools who were of legal age would have needed the first of a two-dose vaccination in late November and a second injection by late December in order to be completely vaccinated before the start of second semester if they had been born after the outbreak began.
According to the district’s medical director, 87 percent of eligible pupils are completely or partly vaccinated, which represents a significant increase over the previous year.
