The Culver City Unified School District will require all eligible students to get a COVID-19 vaccine and show proof that they are vaccinated.
It is believed to be the first such mandate in California, where teachers and staff are already required to show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing.
"We are mandating vaccines for all eligible staff and students,'' the district announced on Twitter. "We will begin gathering vaccine status data immediately. The deadline for providing the proof of vaccine is Friday, November 19, 2021, to give everyone the opportunity to make their vaccine plans.''
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Gov. Gavin Newsom last month announced a requirement for all teachers and school employees in the state to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or submit to weekly testing -- but the Culver City directive takes that a step further to include eligible students.
Children 12 and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
"We felt that doing the minimum is not quite good enough. We could do more,'' Culver City schools Superintendent Quoc Tran told the Los Angeles Times. "We are in the context of constantly crowded places in school settings. The vaccine helps in case our children or staff members contract the virus. They have a lesser chance to be severely impacted.''
Tran also told the Times that the district could revisit its student requirement is the recent COVID-19 surge abates by November.
"If the pandemic is tapering off at that time, then we will ease off on that requirement,'' he said.
Culver City Unified -- which returns to in-person learning Thursday -- also plans to begin weekly testing for staff and students regardless of vaccination status.
"The testing will be done at each school site to minimize the inconvenience for families,'' the district tweeted.
The district serves an estimated 7,100 K-12 students and has some 900 employees.
