Amended: 7/3/23
Status: in Senate Appropriations with no hearing set
Action: The recent amendment to this bill resolves a lot of our concern
and does not need action at this time.
Bill: AB 659 – Cancer Prevention Act
Author: Aguiar-Curry (D-Napa)
Position: Oppose
Current Status
AB 659 has been referred to the Senate Education Committee and has a hearing date set for July 13th.
Summary of Concern
This bill would require private and public schools to get a HPV vaccination before entering the eighth grade. It creates a very vague “expectation” that students in public and private schools will be vaccinated against HPV before entering their eighth grade year. This requirement must be sent as a notification to parents of the students during their sixth grade year. The ambiguous nature of this “expectation” created by this bill has left many questions about enforcement, exemptions, and legality of the changes set out in this bill.
AB 659 has since been amended on July 3rd and the wording “expected” was changed to “recommended”. This is a positive changed for this bill as it will no longer be a requirement that these students be vaccinated, it is just a recommendation and this bill would still send out a notification to parents as the school would advise vaccinating their children.
With this amendment from “expected” to “recommended” there is less urgency from this legislation and no need to contact representatives at this time.