District officials were optimistic that most students would be able to return to class soon.
“We’re getting down to it,” Anderson said.
The Folsom Cordova Unified School District hit the extended deadline Friday for having all students immunized. Mary Ann Delleney, director of health programs for the district, said about 2,250 students who have yet to get vaccinated won’t be turned away.
“We will not withhold education for students, but we will make every effort that we possibly can to be in compliance with state law,” she said. The district had 70 whooping cough cases last year, she said.
In the Natomas Unified School District in Sacramento, about 1,100 students hadn’t received their immunization shots by Thursday night, said Janet Handley, the assistant supervisor of education services. The district’s 30-day extended deadline ended Friday.
Students who show up Monday without proof of their immunization will be sent to the school’s gymnasium for study hall, Handley said. The students who are sequestered into the gym will not count toward the district’s attendance-based funding for those students on those days, she said. Schools in California lose money for each absence.
“We’re trying to balance how to get the message out that they need to get the shot, and we also need them at school,” Handley said.
Natomas High School hosted a free clinic after school Friday, where a line of students curled around the gym where nurses were administering shots. Many said they hadn’t heard of the immunization requirement until this week, despite what health and education officials described as a barrage of information sent to parents, students and schools.
Brenna Packard, who said she left work early to get her 16-year-old son Anthony his shot, said she didn’t have a clue the shots were required, even though she works on the electronic health record at Sutter Health in Rancho Cordova.
“I should have known about this, somehow, through somebody,” she said.
Handley said the district has been sponsoring free clinics since June while communicating with parents since February about the impending deadline through the school website, announcements, flyers, phone calls and emails.
Jake Terry, a 12-year-old at NP3, a charter middle school in Sacramento, said he first heard about the shot requirement on the news.
“I’m scared about the needle’s size,” he said.
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