LA schools vaccine mandate delayed until next fall

The Los Angeles school board has delayed the coronavirus vaccine requirement to next fall due to lack of compliance. 

The board agreed to the delay on Tuesday along with expanding the mandate to charter schools under the district’s authorization, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The decision to delay the mandate comes as 28,000 students are still not under compliance, while 87 percent of L.A. Unified students above the age of 12 are fully vaccinated.

The board made clear the decision to delay was just that and there are no intentions of scrapping the vaccine mandate.

“I want to tell those of you who come and … think you pushed us back. No, you didn’t. The mandate remains,” school board member Jackie Goldberg said.

Goldberg added the pushback for the mandate was also for the vaccinated students, who would see disruptions if thousands of students were sent to online schooling in the middle of the academic year.

“I felt like we were ending up with a situation in which those who complied would be the most negatively affected,” Goldberg said. “I think we have no choice.”

The decision comes days after a judge upheld the school’s vaccine mandate and did not issue an injunction at the request of parent organizations, according to the local outlet. 

“We support the district’s student and employee vaccinations requirements that remain our community’s best line of defense against COVID-19,” United Teachers Los Angeles secretary said. “We also understand the huge challenges and potentially disastrous impact that transferring 30,000 students into an online independent study program would create for our students and their families.”