Oakland Unified approves vaccine mandate for eligible students

Oakland Unified on Wednesday became the first district in Northern California to require students 12 and older be vaccinated in order to attend school in-person.

The school board voted 5-1 to approve the mandate, with school board members Mike Hutchinson dissenting and Shanthi Gonzalez abstaining, KTVU reported. The resolution authorizes Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell to develop recommendations to enforce the mandate and establish a vaccination campaign.

The district hasn’t yet set a deadline as to when eligible students need to be vaccinated. In a news release sent Thursday morning, district offciials said the requirement would go into effect no earlier than Jan. 1. All exemptions required by law — such as for medical or religious reasons — and a “personal belief exemption” will be included in the requirement, the news release said.

Oakland Unified follows in the footsteps of Los Angeles Unified and Culver City Unified, which announced vaccine mandates earlier in the school year and are giving families several months to get into compliance.