BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 792
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Date of Hearing: August 26, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 792
(Mendoza) - As Amended August 19, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires day care workers to be vaccinated for
specified infectious diseases as a condition of employment.
Specifically, this bill:
SB 792
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1)Prohibits, after September 1, 2016, a day care center or a
family day care home from employing any person who has not
been immunized against measles, pertussis, and influenza
(flu).
2)Specifies circumstances under which a person would be exempt
from the immunization requirement based on medical safety,
current immunity, or, for flu vaccine, timing of hire or
employee declination.
3)Narrows current broad-based tuberculosis testing requirements
for day care workers by conforming to a risk-based methodology
that currently applies to teachers.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Costs to the Department of Social Services (DSS), which licenses
child care facilities, are expected to be minor and absorbable.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, children in day care
settings have close, intimate contact with each other and with
the staff who work there. Many of these children are too
young to be fully immunized against potentially serious
communicable diseases. Children who are too young to be
vaccinated rely on those around them to be immunized to
prevent the spread of disease (community immunity). This bill
will protect children in day care by requiring those who care
for them to maintain immunity.
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2)Background. The diseases that vaccines prevent can be
dangerous, or even deadly. According to the CDC, vaccines
reduce the risk of infection by working with the body's
natural defenses to help it safely develop immunity to
disease. Some diseases that are non-serious in adults can be
dangerous, and perhaps even fatal, for an infant or an
individual with a suppressed immune system. Last year, in
California, ten children died of influenza. During the last
major pertussis outbreak in 2010, there were 9,000 cases of
whooping cough and ten infant deaths. This bill is intended
to reduce opportunity for the spread of disease to children
through adults employed in centers and family day care homes.
3)Related Legislation. AB 1667 (Williams) replaced current
mandatory tuberculosis (TB) testing for school employees and
volunteers with a TB risk assessment administered by a health
care provider.
4)Prior Legislation.
a) SB 277 (Pan and Allen), Chapter 35, Statutes of 2015,
eliminates the personal belief exemption from the
requirement that children receive specified vaccines for
certain infectious diseases prior to being admitted to any
public or private elementary or secondary school or day
care center.
b) AB 2109 (Pan) Chapter 821, Statutes of 2012, requires
that if a child requests an exemption from the school
vaccination requirement due to a personal belief, that an
additional form issued by DPH must accompany a letter or
affidavit for a personal belief exemption. The form must
include a signed attestation from a health care
practitioner that he or she provided information regarding
the benefits and risks of the immunization and the health
risks of the communicable diseases. The Governor included
a message with his signature on this bill, which stated, in
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part: "I will direct (DPH) to allow for a separate
religious exemption on the form. In this way, people whose
religious beliefs preclude vaccinations will not be
required to seek a health care practitioner's signature."
1)Support. This bill is sponsored by the Health Officers
Association of California and supported by numerous health
care providers, teachers, the Child Care Law Center, the March
of Dimes California chapter, and other groups.
2)Opposition. Several groups opposed to vaccination mandates,
and hundreds of such individuals, have written in opposition.
Analysis Prepared by:Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916)
319-2081