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California Teachers Not Subject To Same Vaccinations Rules As Students

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- There's a big push to get more California students vaccinated against measles and other diseases but different rules apply to their teachers as it is left up to individual school districts to ensure they have had their shots.

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Pediatrician and state Sen. Richard Pan will formally introduce a bill Thursday abolishing the personal belief exemption from the requirement that all California schoolchildren be immunized. But there is no such state law governing teachers, or other school staffers.

Dr. Pan told KCBS that is because previous generations either has measles, or got the vaccine.

VACCINATION RATES:
All 2014-15 Kindergarten Classes
 LATEST CASES: 
CA Public Health Tracking

"The generally got immunized so I think there was felt there less of a need to actually have to require immunizations because the immunization rate was so high in that group of people," he said.

Pan said most districts recommend vaccines for teachers but don't ask to see their records, which are often decades old. But he also said he's open to the idea of a statewide requirement—if there is evidence to support it.

"Let's look at the data and see if there's a need to do something," he said.

For now, he said, the primary concern is the low immunization rates among children in certain pockets of California.

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