The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Tuesday, Nov. 2, it will begin offering COVID-19 vaccines to children ages 5 to 11 next week, though it’s not currently requiring students in this age group to get the shots.
The announcement came shortly after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave final approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be administered to 5- to 11-year-olds under an emergency use authorization at a third of the regular dose for adults and teens.
“We are delighted to be able to offer voluntary vaccine access to students in this age group,” the nation’s second-largest school district said in a statement. “The COVID-19 vaccine is highly encouraged for children ages 5-11. However, it will not be part of Los Angeles Unified’s current student vaccine requirement.”
The district will begin deploying mobile vaccination teams on Monday to administer the vaccines to children as young as 5. Then, starting Nov. 16, LAUSD will have 13 school-based clinics offering the vaccines. The district will open the school clinics on select Saturdays as well. Information is available at achieve.lausd.net/studentvaccine.
L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer also said Tuesday that the county is poised to start offering pediatric doses of the Pfizer vaccine to 5- to 11-year-olds as early as Wednesday.
LAUSD’s current student vaccination mandate only applies to children 12 and older. These older students must receive their first vaccine dose by Nov. 21 and their second by Dec. 19 to attend school in person next semester, which starts in January.
High schoolers in sports, band or drill, however, were supposed to provide proof that they had gotten their second dose of a two-dose vaccine regimen or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine by Sunday.
Those who didn’t meet this week’s deadline have been barred from participating in extracurricular activities until they comply — a mandate that has caused complications for some sports programs, including the Canoga Park football team.
On Monday, the district reported that about 77% of high school students in athletics, band and drill had been cleared to continue participating in their programs.
District officials have said the coronavirus vaccines are safe — as have public health officials — and the best way to protect those in schools.
Nevertheless, a number of parents have opposed the mandate. So far, the district has been slapped with two lawsuits over its vaccine mandate for students.