Pupil health: COVID-19 Youth Health Information Act.

Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary education in this state. Under this system, local educational agencies throughout the state provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, at the schoolsites they operate. Private schools also provide elementary and secondary level instruction. This bill would enact the COVID-19 Youth Health Information Act. The act would require the State Department of Education to post on its internet website information related to the safe return of pupils to exercise and physical activity, as defined, after exhibiting signs or symptoms of, or testing positive for, COVID-19, and would specify that the information include current guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The bill also would require the department to include in its posts current guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics for pupils to obtain medical clearance before returning to exercise and physical activity after exhibiting signs or symptoms of, or testing positive for, COVID-19, as specified. The bill would require the department to monitor best practices and evolving guidelines on the safe return of pupils to exercise and physical activity after exhibiting signs or symptoms of, or testing positive for, COVID-19, and to update its internet website in response to new information. The bill would also require the department to encourage schools and school districts to give pupils and their parents and guardians ready access to the information obtained pursuant to this bill by posting it on their internet websites, and actively distributing this information, as specified. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2024, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2025. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.