COVID: Oakland Unified Sets January Deadline For Students 12 And Up To Be Fully Vaccinated
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – Students 12 and older in the Oakland Unified School District will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend in-person classes starting in January, following a close vote by the school board Wednesday night.
During the meeting, the board decided out of three options on how to enforce the student vaccine mandate, which was approved last month. In a 4-3 vote, the board decided all students 12 and up must be vaccinated to attend school in-person or take part in other in-person school activities at the start of Spring Semester.
The board passed on an option that would have allowed unvaccinated students to attend classes during the upcoming semester, but not participate in extracurricular activities such as sports, prom or graduation. An option to enforce the vaccine requirement at the start of the 2022-23 school year, when the state's vaccine requirement for students goes into effect, was also rejected.
District officials said students who receive a medical or personal belief exemption would be exempt, or if a student has recently received their shots but is not yet fully vaccinated.
Students who are not exempted from the vaccine mandate will be offered placement in the district's independent study program at Sojourner Truth.
Wednesday's decision does not impact students ages 5-11, who have yet to be authorized to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. A decision by the FDA and CDC to authorize young children to be vaccinated is expected in the coming days.
