SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California lawmakers voted on Thursday to substantially limit vaccine exemptions for school children in the most populous U.S. state, an initiative prompted by last year's measles outbreak at Disneyland that sickened more than 100 people.
California Republican lawmaker Melissa Melendez, who voted against the bill, said it passed by a vote of 46 to 30 in the state Assembly. The state Senate has already approved a version of the bill, which eliminates so-called personal belief exemptions.
The measure still allows children to attend school without vaccinations for medical reasons.
In recent years, vaccination rates at many California schools have plummeted as parents, some of whom fear a link between vaccines and autism, have declined to inoculate their children against such diseases as polio and measles.
The majority of children are vaccinated, but at some schools, many in affluent and liberal enclaves, vaccination rates are well below the 92 percent needed to maintain group immunity that can protect those who are not vaccinated for medical reasons or who have weak immune systems.
Under the bill, unvaccinated children who do not have a medical exemption would have to study at home or in organized, private home-schooling groups.