On August 11^th 2021, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued a State Public Health Officer Order that provided direction on vaccine verification for workers in California schools. Additionally, CDPH published FAQs addressing specifics pertaining to the scope of the Order and definitions.

Under this Order schools are required to create a plan for tracking worker vaccination status and have records of vaccination verification available to provide to the local health jurisdiction for purposes of case investigation.

Workers who are not fully vaccinated, or for whom vaccine status is unknown and documentation is not provided, must be considered unvaccinated.

The order also mandates regular COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated workers to be tested at least once weekly. Unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated workers must also observe all other infection control requirements and are not exempt from the testing requirement even if they have a medical contraindication to vaccination.

Schools with workers required to undergo COVID-19 testing need to have a plan in place for tracking test results and conducting workplace contact tracing and must report results to local public health departments.

The order became effective on August 12th, 2021. However, covered facilities have until October 15th, 2021, to be in full compliance with the requirements.

The Eyres Law Group released the following Critical Compliance Alert to assist LEAs in the preparation and implementation of the requirement. If you are in need of further assistance with this or any other matter please reach out to our Risk Control Department.