SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — Under a new bill, California schools would need to come up with their own COVID-19 testing plans.
Tuesday, State Senator Dr. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, announced Senate Bill 1479, which would create a new state mandate and provide funding and resources needed to help schools carry out their testing plans.
“Being able to identify positive cases and be able to quarantine them allow schools to be open and safe,” Pan said.
Pan could not say how much this program could cost and said his office is still collecting data.
The bill does not require students to get tested but requires schools to develop testing plans using the California Department of Public Health’s guidance for schools and testing. The state’s current school testing program is optional.
Some local school board members, like Berkeley Unified School District School Board Director Ana Vasudeo, said they support the legislation.
“We don’t know what’s coming next month, we don’t know what’s coming throughout the next year, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s that we need to be ready, and COVID-19 testing is an important tool to protect students and educators,” Vasudeo said.
Students in support of Pan’s proposal said there should be a statewide standard for school testing.
“As an OUC student, I’ve bore witness to inaccessible testing lines and standing in them for hours, lack of PPE, as well as students having to miss school weeks after getting sick. This isn’t normal,” said an Oakland Unified School District student identified only as Nuriel.
The legislation is the latest in a laundry list of bills crafted by the California legislature’s vaccine workgroup, which in part is aiming to keep schools open.
Other bills that will be considered this year include one that allows teens to get vaccinated without parental consent and another requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, regardless of their personal beliefs.
The bills will likely be heard this spring.