SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to announce Wednesday that California will require all teachers and school employees to be vaccinated or submit to regular Covid-19 testing, the first such state requirement amid growing Delta variant concerns, according to sources familiar with the plan.
Under the policy, school employees would have to show proof of vaccination to their districts. The move comes after three large California districts announced similar requirements on their own Tuesday and just two days after American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten voiced support for such a mandate.
The plan was described to POLITICO by sources who were not authorized to speak ahead of a Wednesday morning press conference at a school in the Bay Area. Until now, the recall-threatened governor had stopped short of requiring teacher vaccinations for the upcoming academic year.
The state’s two major teachers unions — the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers — support the plan, sources said. CTA reports that nearly 90 percent of its members are vaccinated, based on a survey in March.