News Update

CalMatters database shows 940 individual school districts’ Covid-19 policies across state

CalMatters has created a database of 940 public school districts’ Covid-19 policies, showing a patchwork of attempts to control the omicron variant, including more than 40 districts that are attempting vaccine mandates.

“Neither the California Department of Education nor any other agency is keeping track of all individual district policies,” CalMatters reported. The public can use the database to track the individual policies where their children go to school.

“I am surprised that there is no central body that regulates school districts,” Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology at Stanford University told CalMatters. “This clearly isn’t good public health policy.”

“There is no way you can come up with an argument where a patchwork approach to anything is going to be helpful for public health,” Maldonado said. “Viruses don’t look at borders. … You can have a massive outbreak triggered in a small district that can cross borders.”