Gov. Gavin Newsom this week announced a statewide policy requiring all school teachers and school employees in the state to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or submit to weekly testing.
“We think this is the right thing to do and we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open and to address the number one anxiety that parents like myself have—I have four young children—and that is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep our kids safe, to keep our kids healthy, and that is what we’re doing here in the state of California,’’ Newsom said.
The policy mirrors one announced this week by the Long Beach Unified School District, which will begin fall classes at the end of August. School districts in San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento also have similar requirements in place.
“We feel [this] is a responsible step in the direction to continue to maintain that stewardship and that focus on getting to where we all want to go, and that’s extinguishing this virus once and for all,’’ Newsom added.
Newsom also touted the state’s higher-than-average vaccination rate—77.5 percent of all eligible residents receiving at least one dose—but said, “It’s not good enough. We have more work to do.’’
The governor said he hopes the requirement “will begin a process of significantly increasing vaccination rates’’ statewide.
“We believe this will be well-received,’’ he said. “Not everybody will be overwhelmed by this, but we think it will be well-received, because it’s the right thing to do to keep our most precious resource healthy and safe, our children here in the state.’’
The vaccination-or-testing requirement already has the support of the powerful Service Employees International Union, which represents thousands of school workers across the state.
“We share Governor Newsom’s commitment to increasing the rate of vaccination so we can better protect the students and families we serve from sickness and death, and prevent the virus from spreading to our own families and communities,” said Max Arias, an executive board member of SEIU California.
