West Contra Costa Unified pushes back Covid-19 vaccine mandate deadline

Since thousands of West Contra Costa Unified families still have not submitted their childrens’ Covid-19 vaccine verifications in order to continue in-person instruction, the district scrapped its original vaccine mandate deadline of Jan. 3 and pushed it back to Feb. 18.

That gives families an extra month to get their children ages 12 and up vaccinated and notify the district. Families who don’t do so by Feb. 18 will be forced to enroll their children in the district’s independent study program, Vista Virtual Academy, or take their children out of district schools.

School board members voted Wednesday to scrap the previous deadline after Superintendent Kenneth “Chris” Hurst expressed that the district was not prepared to offer independent study to the thousands of students who hadn’t submitted their vaccine verification, which would have put the district out of compliance with state law. Districts are required to offer an independent study option this school year.