OUSD official: Hundreds of students have not confirmed immunizations

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- As students return back to school in Oakland Monday, school officials are working to confirm the immunization requirements for hundreds of them.

The new rules require virtually all California children to have proof of their immunizations, regardless of personal or medical beliefs.

RELATED: California's new vaccination law in effect

Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 277 into law this summer. It basically gets rid of the state's personal belief exemption rule that some parents exercised in order to allow their children get into school without getting vaccinations. But with the start of the new school year, that law means that students are going to be required to collect all vaccination records or their children will be sent home.

Oakland Unified School District schools had been rolling out lots of information for students and parents to make sure all their shots are up to date in order to guarantee an orderly start to the school year.

But as of a few days ago, it was estimated that about 4,100 students in the whole system were not current on their vaccinations.

Now, just a day before school starts that number has shrunk significantly.

According to a school spokesperson, more than a 1,000 of those students have now updated their vaccination records.

Students with appointments for shots to be administered in the next few days will also be allowed to attend the first day of school.

Still, there will be about a 1,000 students who may not be allowed to start school Monday. "Unfortunately, if you walk in tomorrow and you haven't presented immunizations prior, you won't be allowed in class. And so we want you to get them as soon as possible because we want our kids in school studying," Oakland Unified School District spokesperson John Sasaki said.

There are about 400 students within the Oakland Unified School District whose parents exercised a personal belief exemption before this law was passed. Those students will be grandfathered in and will be allowed into class.

But there's an exception to that rule. If a student is entering the 7th grade, that personal belief exemption is no longer valid. So, students entering the 7th grade are going to need to have their vaccinations and the records to prove they got them or they will not be allowed into class.

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