Washington Revokes Plan to Punish Students Refusing COVID-19 Vaccination

Under the proposal, parents would submit vaccination certificates of their children to ensure the kids were allowed to attend school.

Empty chairs at Paularino Elementary School, of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Aug. 21, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The District of Columbia (D.C.) scrapped its plans to impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on school children that threatened to exclude unvaccinated students from classes.

On Tuesday, the D.C. Council voted to repeal the COVID-19 vaccination mandate, with all 13 members approving it. The vaccine mandate was instituted by the D.C. Council in 2021 through a bill that amended a 1979 immunization law by adding COVID-19 vaccines to the list of required immunizations for children. Families were to be given 20 days from the date of notification of non-compliance to get their child vaccinated, failing which the child would be barred from attending classes.