State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón rescinded a public health order requiring that all school employees show proof of vaccination or be tested at least weekly. The new policy is effective Sept. 17.
California's school year will begin with fewer Covid protocols, universal transitional kindergarten, more afterschool programs and community schools, and later start times for older students.
If much larger numbers of young California children are not vaccinated by next term, keeping so many of them out of school and in remote learning will be an educational and political impossibility.
Advocates are calling for early releases from California's youth detention facilities amid their largest Covid-19 outbreak, citing early releases from adult prisons over the past two years.