Assignment: Policy Process
In 2015, the Governor of California signed "California's new vaccination law, which is called Senate Bill 277. Under this new law all children must be immunized against 10 serious communicable diseases: diphtheria, Haemophilia's influenza type b, bacterial meningitis, measles, mumps, pertussis, polio, rubella, tetanus, hepatitis B, and chicken pox (Adams, J. 2015)". According to this new law parents have he right to not have their child immunized, however, the child can't attend public, or private schools, nor day care centers. Children who are not vaccinated will have to be home schooled.
Formulation
According to the text the formulation stage is the initial step to a new policy, or amending existing policies (Longest, B. 2016)". California's Governor saw a major problem with school age children attending school who are not immunized. There have been many outbreaks of diseases which are linked to children who have not been immunized. The SB 277 law will go into effect and it will eliminate personal and religious beliefs of families who want their children to attend public school. This law of course has parents worried about their options. This law will mostly effect "children entering into kindergarten, 7th grade, and children transferring from another county Adams, J. 2015". Without proof of immunizations, these children will not be allowed to attend public school.
Evaluation/Analysis
In December of 2014, there was a measles outbreak that was traced back to Disneyland from unvaccinated individuals. This lead to the CDC getting involved and feeling it is easier to "prevent a disease than to treat it (cdc.gov)". Unless a medical condition prohibits the vaccination, and is signed by a M.D., the child will have to be vaccinated. "This bill would, in certain circumstances, permit a child to be temporarily excluded from the school or institution until the local health officer is satisfied that the child is no longer at risk of developing or transmitting a communicable disease for which immunization is otherwise required by law (Jackson, H, 2015)".
Revision
As with any law, there will alway be changes or revisions made. Once it is written changes will occur immediately. Revisions were made to the law on March 3, 2016, which states that "SB 277 exempts from it requirements students who are privately home schooled or who are enrolled in independent study public schools if the students do not receive classroom based instructions. However the law does not specifically define whether attending any amount of classes as part of an independent study program constitutes participation in classroom based instruction for purpose of this exemption (Corr, L. 2016)".
Adams, J. (2015) What Schools and Parents Need to Know About the New Vaccination Law.
Corr, L. (2016) Update to July 6, 2015 Legal Alert SB 277:Student Immunizations.
Jackson, H. (2015) Senate Judiciary Committee: Bill Analysis.
Longest, B. (2016) Health Policy Making in the United States.