Legislation requiring vaccinations for nearly all California schoolchildren revived Wednesday, winning the approval of a Senate committee that a week earlier looked poised to reject the measure.
Amendments giving non-vaccinated children more educational options beyond traditional schooling generated enough support to push Senate Bill 277 out of the Senate Education Committee on a 7-2 vote.
The bill heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the next step in a potentially long odyssey winding through several committees and floor votes in both the Assembly and Senate. Every Democrat on the Judiciary Committee is either a co-sponsor of the bill or has voted for it.
Still, they will wrestle with issues that could include whether an exemption for parents who object to vaccinations on religious grounds would be legally feasible. Multiple lawmakers said Wednesday that the legislation will require more changes if it is to make it to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk and win his signature.
"There's a lot of work we still have to do," Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, said after the hearing.While proponents frame SB 277 as a public health measure needed to protect Californians who are too young or sick to be immunized against diseases like measles and whooping cough, the bill faltered last week under questions about whether unvaccinated children could still exercise their constitutional right to an education. SB 277 would preserve medical exemptions but nix a broad personal belief exemption, prompting many parents to threaten to pull their children from school.
In the meantime, Allen of Santa Monica and Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, crafted amendments to placate skeptics. The changes expand the home-schooling and independent study options available to children who are not vaccinated and therefore cannot attend conventional public or private schools.
Now, unvaccinated children could get an education through private home-schools that cover multiple families – in the bill's previous version only those serving a single family or household had qualified. The bill changes also clarified that unvaccinated kids could receive schooling through independent study programs that are overseen by school districts and given access to public school curricula.
Source: sacbee.com
