I'm just curious if there is anyone in here with school age children in California, who are facing the possibility of having them kicked out of school if you don't give them the covid vaccine? I'm not looking for a debate. I'm curious to know what you plans are, if you are already planning for this possibility, etc.
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@agold: we are in California and I have 2 school aged kids. There is definitely a lot of drama about this going on. I think there is also a lot of misinformation. My understanding is it won’t be mandated until it gets full approval. This will likely be 2022 school year. Also, California already has a lot of other mandated vaccines for school, more than other states I believe. There will be medical and personal exceptions available. Schools will also be offering independent study and support with home school if parents choose to go that route. We will be choosing to vaccinate our kids though so I may have a different viewpoint.
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@MommySLP: Thanks for your response. It is a pretty big topic around where I am at, as well. That's awesome you will be falling on the side of the mandate so that you won't have to be worrying about this and how to school your littles.
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@agold: I'm in California but the mandate isn't a hot topic here. We talked masks and returning to school and nauseum but I haven't heard a peep about the mandate from other parents.
Can you explain what your concern about the mandate is? As I read the coverage and as PP stated there is an exemption for personal beliefs so I don't understand who is getting kicked out.
From the NY Times Oct 19 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/us/california-covid-school-closures.html
"For other childhood vaccines, California barred parents in 2016 from citing their religious views to get out of vaccinating their children, after the number of unvaccinated students crept dangerously high.
But for the Covid-19 vaccine, officials say, parents will be allowed to opt out if they feel it conflicts with their personal beliefs."
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@agold: You may say you are not looking for debate but this post is pretty clearly showing where you fall on the issue and that you think there is a debate to be had. My kid won’t be school age quite yet but I will vaccinate her ASAP and I believe the vaccines should be mandated without personal or religious exemption once fully FDA approved. This is the world we live in. Many vaccines are mandated for the good of public health. There is no reason the Covid vaccine should be different. If people don’t want to vaccinate they can pull their kid from school.
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@agold: to start Kindergarten in California schools, children already were required to have the Polio, DTaP, MMR, Hep B, and Chicken Pox. I’m not sure why this would be any different? It’s another vaccine that has been determined to be necessary to maintain public health, so I would hope the same requirements would apply as all other necessary vaccines.
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@agold: sorry that you are having to worry about this. Such a stressful time. I’m not in California but where I am there are lots of parents forming learning pods or planning for it. Can you see if there are other families in your school or area who would be on the same page to do this? Teachers who are leaving the schools are also looking for jobs to teach learning pods.
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@theotherstark: is California really lax on the loopholes for required vaccines? I remember the measles and whooping cough outbreaks in California—all vaccine preventable. Seems they have big pockets of anti-vax communities.
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@Anagram: not that I’m aware of; I think they make it pretty difficult to attend school unvaccinated. There are pockets of anti-vax communities, certainly - I think a fair amount tend to lean more toward homeschooling anyway? Who knows.
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It will be a little bit longer until it gets full FDA approval. Maybe the end of next year? So you will have some time. It's looking for EUA in the next few weeks.
I understand it's a "new" vaccine (for the argument that many other vaccines are required to attend school), but there are years and years of research on MRNA and this type of vaccine, and if you want, it sounds like you'll be able to wait a year + before making a decision. You will be able to read all of the the FDA research & studies when it comes out in a few weeks (please do not only look to the VAERS self-reporting website that is unverified), and then you can decide what is best for your family.
I feel for those that are stressed about this
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@Anagram: They added laws in 2016 and 2019 that closed up most of the loopholes. You now have to have a medical exemption and they track doctors to make sure they aren't giving out too many.
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@Corduroy: Hi! I didn't state that I had a concern; rather, I am curious if anyone has plans for what they will do and, more specifically, if their child ends up having to be withdrawn from school. And you are correct about what occurred in 2016. It was a 2015 California law that eliminated personal belief exemptions for vaccinations required of children attending schools. My kids are fully vaxxed, but I did very much cringe about the chicken pox vaccine. As a child of the 80s, we had chicken pox parties in my neighborhood. Once I caught it, my 80 year old great grandmother was the one who stayed with me for a week I was home from school since both my parents worked. My husband and I have matching pox scars on our foreheads. Anyhow, currently, neither the flu nor the HPV vaccine are required to attend school. I've never given my kids or myself the flu shot and I don't plan to give them the HPV vaccine. COVID-19 vaccinations are not on that mandated list, but if and when it gets moved there, parents will not have an option.
@JJ2626: Hi! I fully support all you want to do with your kids. I"m so happy for you to have options. No debate here.
@theotherstark: I'm curious to know what you plans are, if you are already planning for this possibility, etc
@ALV91711: Thank you for your reply.
I've actually joined an awesome message board that is mostly about homeschooling. As a full time working mom, I have never had a desire or ability to homeschool. Pods are already loosely forming in my area. I'm still just not sure how or when this will all play out. And yes, its been surprising to see about teachers frustrated with teaching now. So I do not think there will be a hard time hiring a teacher. Still, no clue yet how that "school" day will look in a pod.@Anagram: I, too, remember the measles outbreak that started at Disneyland. I don't recall the whopping cough "outbreak." But I do remember the significant amount of time that I kept both my babies home after birth to avoid catching these illnesses. I'll forever be shocked when I see a newborn baby out in the public. Also, I'm not aware of big pockets of anti-vaxxers. But I believe anti-vaxxers can be found all over the country. And for sure these anti-vaxxers have already been homeschooling because they couldn't attend school in California.
@hellobeeboston: Thank you for your kind response. And yes, big family decisions are being made.
@AB810: you are right. And I don't know about tracking doctors, since I don't have any knowledge of those doctors. But I wouldn't be surprised about anything anymore.
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To clarify on the "loophole": "Because the law only applies to previously approved immunizations, the state must offer broader personal belief exemptions for all newly mandated vaccines unless lawmakers and Newsom override that requirement."
I haven't heard any further news stating there's political appetite to close the loophole. Are parents making plans assuming further action will be taken to close the personal exemption that applies currently?
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@Corduroy: Yes, that is what is going on in my community. If and when the covid vaccine gets moved to the permanent list and the children who do not get the covid vaccine can no longer attend school. Its going to a fairly significant amount of children.
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I'm in NY and also might be facing a mandate way too soon. I followed along when the FDA hearing aired and it gives me pause that only 3000 kids were vaccinated in the trial, and it sounds like the FDA committee had a lot of unanswered questions because that's kind of small for a trial. Would be nice if we could wait till full FDA approval and more long-term data, but sounds like the governor has no plans to wait that long.
I don't know what we're going to do - it's looking like the luxury of waiting for safety data will come at a very high price.
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@Mama Bird: that is a small trial, but fwiw, I find it comforting that very large numbers of kids 12-17 have been successfully vaccinated—in my very large (population more than 1 million) county, 81% of that age group is fully vaccinated, so that’s a lot of kids. Plus I’m glad that the dose for the younger group is a third of the adult. Many vaccines actually just have the same dosage for all age groups. It’s hard to not be nervous, but ultimately I find it compelling that the risk of myocarditis, which seems to be the main concern (or is mine anyway), has been much higher post-Covid than post-vaccine. And I think there’s really no avoiding Covid at this point, especially unvaccinated. Anyway, I totally understand being nervous, so just wanted to share the things that are making me more comfortable!
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My province just said that they weren't going to add the COVID vaccine to the list of mandatory vaccines for school kids and I'm actually pretty angry about it, so I'm jealous of those of you who have a mandate!
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@Mama Bird: and @MrsSCB: I followed along as well and share your concerns. I also agree that it will be a luxury to wait out receiving the vaccine. I think it is going to be so expensive if it gets to the point of mandated w/o personal belief exemptions to attend school. Expensive to get into a pod, hire a teacher, hire a nanny, etc., for the parents who still work. A luxury for one parent to stay home and home school the traditional way. Or leave the state. The bulk of working parents won't have these options.
I've actually joined an awesome message board that is mostly about homeschooling. As a full time working mom, I have never had a desire or ability to homeschool. Pods are already loosely forming in my area. I'm still just not sure how or when this will all play out. And yes, its been surprising to see about teachers frustrated with teaching now. So I do not think there will be a hard time hiring a teacher. Still, no clue yet how that "school" day will look in a pod.Reply
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