Governor Newsom passed a law that gives the state the power to reject certain medical exemptions for vaccines this week.
Parents who are against vaccinations are going to have a hard time skipping out on their children’s shots thanks to a new law that the governor just signed into. Starting January 1, 2020, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) will have the power to revoke requests for medical exemptions that it determines are not medically necessary according to SB 276.
Most kids in California already vaccinated since it’s legally required for parents to provide paperwork proving so to get them into daycare, kindergarten, and 7th grade. Now, parents who wish not to abide by the law have the option of homeschooling their children. Kids who obtain a compromised immune system, like those who have been receiving chemotherapy, can have an exemption from the vaccination requirement.
California’s vaccination laws are now among the strictest in the nation.
Check out what SB 276 will do once in action:
- The department will review vaccine exemptions at schools where less than 95% of the kids enrolled are fully vaccinated.
- The department will review exemptions from doctors who write more than five exemptions in a year.
- Schools have to publish their students’ vaccination rates at least each year.
- Unvaccinated kids with approved medical exemptions can stay home from school if there’s a disease exposure at the school.
- Doctors or parents can appeal the revocation of a medical exemption to an independent review board of doctors appointed by the California Department of Health and Human Services.
- Beginning with the 2021-22 school year, kids entering seventh grade will need an updated medical exemption, even if they had one previously.
- The law is not retroactive; only medical exemptions granted after Jan. 1, 2020 will be subject to review.
- Doctors who have been placed on probation by the Medical Board of California over issuing invalid medical exemptions will not be allowed to grant any more exemptions.