To view/share as a webpage, click here [[link removed]]

[[link removed]]

AB 2651: Persistence, Vigilance and Strategic Advocacy Paid Off

⭐ A Voice for Choice Advocacy has some very exciting news to share: AB 2651 (Bonta), known as the Informed Parents, Healthy Schools Act ( [link removed] [[link removed]] ), was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee and will not move forward this legislative session.

This is a major victory and the culmination of months of work by AVFCA's legislative team.

Our last update explained that Assemblymember Bonta's office had proposed significant amendments that addressed many of our concerns. Those amendments would have eliminated the proposed vaccination thresholds and limited parent notifications to schools already being audited by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). We told you that if those amendments were officially adopted, AVFCA would remove its opposition. However, they were never formally published, so we kept our opposition in place while waiting for confirmation that they would be taken in the Senate Appropriations Committee. That decision proved important.

What Changed? Late last week, we learned that after receiving additional information from CDPH, the author's office had changed course. A new set of proposed amendments ( [link removed] [[link removed]] ) was shared with us, but these amendments were also never formally published. The revised proposal was materially different. Instead of limiting parent notifications to schools already being audited, the new amendments brought back a vaccination-rate trigger. If CDPH discovered during a review or audit that a school's overall immunization rate was below 95%, the school would be required to notify all parents.

That brought several of our original concerns right back into the bill.

Why the New Amendments Were Still a Problem: A school could have an immunization rate below 95% and still be fully compliant with California law. That percentage could reflect children who are lawfully attending without being fully vaccinated, including students with medical exemptions and certain students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

AVFCA had repeatedly raised concerns that notifications based on these percentages could stigmatize or indirectly identify legally exempt and protected students, particularly in smaller school communities.

We also pointed out that:

• A CDPH review does not necessarily mean a school is out of compliance. CDPH could review a school, determine that it is legally compliant, and yet the below-95% notification could still be triggered.

• The point-in-time problem remained. Schools were not given a meaningful opportunity to correct records, process exemptions, update vaccination information, or otherwise remedy the situation before parents were notified.

• The information is already publicly available. California already collects and publishes school immunization information through CDPH's Shots for School website.

Rather than remove our opposition, AVFCA doubled down.

We Took the Fight to Senate Appropriations: Because the Senate Appropriations Committee considers the fiscal consequences of legislation, we focused our argument on the potential cost to California schools and taxpayers. AVFCA submitted a detailed opposition letter ( [link removed] [[link removed]] ) asking Chair Senator Sabrina Cervantes and the Senate Appropriations Committee to hold AB 2651.

Our letter documented the extensive history of litigation and administrative proceedings involving the vaccination rights of students with IEPs. These were not hypothetical concerns. The same underlying issue has already generated proceedings involving at least 15 California school districts, charter schools, county offices, and Special Education Local Plan Areas (SELPAs), including Superior Court litigation, stay-put proceedings, and numerous California Department of Education compliance complaints. Thanks to Educate.Advocate ( [link removed] [[link removed]] ), one of our trusted partner organizations, we were able to share a list of those cases with the Committee.

Our argument was simple: Why create a new state-mandated notification that could expose legally compliant schools to discrimination complaints and additional litigation when the underlying immunization information is already publicly available?

We asked the Committee to hold the bill. If it chose to move AB 2651 forward, we requested amendments protecting legally exempt students, clarifying that below 95% does not mean a school is noncompliant, requiring an actual compliance deficiency before notification, and allowing schools an opportunity to remedy problems before parents were notified.

And Today, they Senate Appropriations Committee held AB 2651. The bill will not advance.

After months of hearings, meetings, testimony, legal research, amendment negotiations, stakeholder outreach, and persistent follow-up this is an even better outcome than the amendments we told you about in our last update.

This Is Why AVFCA's Work Matters: This didn't happen by accident. Our legislative team, including April and Christina, worked directly with legislative offices and committee staff throughout the process. April Robinson, our Legislative Director, and Karen Amigon, our Grassroots Director, represented AVFCA at committee hearings, ensuring our concerns were heard and entered into the legislative record.

We educated legislators about the legal status of students with IEPs and reached out to school administrators across California about the bill's practical consequences. Other education organizations ultimately raised many of the same concerns. We also worked constructively with Assemblymember Bonta's office when meaningful amendments appeared possible, and we sincerely appreciate their willingness to engage with us. But when the proposed language changed, we kept our opposition in place, and changed our strategy. That vigilance mattered.

AVFCA is the only California organization doing this work day in and day out in the Capitol, the courtroom, and communities to protect informed consent, parental rights, and medical freedom. Many organizations comment on legislation. AVFCA helps shape it, and when necessary, works to stop it. AB 2651 is a perfect example. We stayed engaged at every stage, were willing to compromise when meaningful improvements were offered, and fought to stop the bill when our concerns returned. Today, that work paid off.

Help Us Keep Doing This Work: Victories like this require resources. Every bill we analyze, every amendment we draft, every legislator we meet with, every hearing we attend, and every opposition letter we submit is made possible by people who financially support AVFCA. If you value having an organization watching legislation every day, reading the fine print, building relationships in the Capitol, and knowing when to negotiate and when to fight, please support AVFCA today.

Your donation keeps us at the table and makes victories like this possible.

[link removed] [[link removed]]

Together we can make change happen

C
Christina Hildebrand
President/Founder
A Voice for Choice Advocacy, Inc.
[email protected] [[email protected]]
www.AVoiceForChoiceAdvocacy.org [[link removed]]
www.avoiceforchoiceadvocacy.org [www.avoiceforchoiceadvocacy.org]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
[link removed] [[link removed] ]
You are receiving this email because you have signed up on the AVFC or AVFCA website or on a sign up list in person. If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe: [link removed] .
A Voice for Choice Advocacy
530 Showers Drive, #7404
Mountain View, CA 94040
United States