SB 1377 would have restored a physician's written statement as sufficient for a child's medical vaccine exemption in California, without state override power.
SB 1377 would have restored a pre-2021 standard under which a licensed physician's written statement is sufficient to exempt a child from California's school immunization mandates, without state or local health officials or third-party panels able to override that medical judgment except where a court finds fraud by clear and convincing evidence. It also would have barred insurers and health facilities from penalizing children who hold a valid medical exemption.
The American Council supported SB 1377 because parents, in consultation with their child's own physician, bear the God-given responsibility for their children's medical care — not a state bureaucracy second-guessing that relationship after the fact. Current law lets health officials revoke a doctor's exemption years later, leaving families in legal limbo. This bill would have restored the physician-patient relationship as the final word on a child's medical exemption, consistent with our conviction that the state should not override parents and their doctors on matters of a child's own body and health.
SB 1377 failed passage in the Senate Health Committee on a 3-4 vote, recorded April 16, 2026, and did not advance. We will watch for any effort to reintroduce similar protections.
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