Friday was the frist day San Diego Unified students without a whooping cough booster shot couldn't attend classes. At the end of the business day, it was thought about 1,100 students still had to submit their proof os vaccination or a personal belief waiver.
San Diego Unified Communications Director Linda Zintz said the district was still waiting for the final attendance counts from two large high schools.
As those reports came in from other school campuses, the number of unvaccinated students declined steadily, from 2,200 at the start of the school day to 1,700 at about 2:45 p.m.
Once the last two school reports were in, Zintz expected the final count of students who missed class today to be below 1,000.
Student who came to school today without the shots were directed to county health department clinics where the booster costs $10.
“As soon as they can take care of that, the better it will be for their students. They’ll be back in school, they’ll be learning, they’ll be protecting themselves as well as their fellow students in terms of addressing the whooping cough epidemic,” Zintz said.
School districts receive state funding based partially on attendance. Each day a student misses costs San Diego Unified about $26.
This is the first year California's seventh through 12th graders have been required to get the booster shot to attend school.
