2022 Legislation

Take Action on SB 1479

SB-1479 COVID-19 testing in schools: COVID-19 testing plans. (Pan)This bill would require CDPH to coordinate specified school COVID-19 testing programs. The bill would also require the department to expand its public health mitigation efforts to include prekindergarten, onsite after school programs, and childcare centers. This bill would require each school district, county office of education, and charter school to create a COVID-19 testing plan consistent with guidance from CDPH.

CURRENT STATUS: Passed in Senate Health Committee and in Senate Education. In Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Step 1. Set Up Meeting

Contact the district office and request meeting. If you do not know who your state representatives are, go to FindYourRep.Legislature.CA.Gov.

If asked what the meeting is about, feel free to state a general concern such as education, health, or the pandemic.

Do not be discouraged if you are offered a meeting with a staffer rather than your legislator, or if it is on zoom vs. in person. Staffers play an important role in the legislative process.

Step 2. Get to Know your Legislator

Read your representatives' bio on their website. What are their interests? What bills have they authored in the past? How have they voted on issues you care about?

Find a common interest in order to establish relatability.

Step 3. Prepare Documents to Take to Meeting
Create your own one page document with the top three concerns you have. Bullet points are helpful as legislators and staffers are dealing with hundreds of bills.



Step 4. Dress and Act Professionally
When meeting with legislators and staffers, the goal is to build positive relationships. This is easy to do if expressing views in polite and respectful ways.


Representatives and their staff are just ordinary people that are generally very personable and friendly.

For a more in depth training on the legislative process and meeting with legislators, watch this video.

TaKe Action 2:

Submit Your Opposition Letter to Policy Committees

Make sure that your position on this bill is heard and put on record by submitting you comments to the California Legislature Position Letter Portal.

(Watch Video Tutorial)

Comments will be shared with the appropriate policy committee members hearing the bill.

Sample Comment:

"I oppose SB 1479 which would require CDPH to coordinate specified school COVID-19 testing programs and require each school district, county office of education, and charter school to create a COVID-19 testing plan consistent with guidance from the department. Asymptomatic testing of students can lead to unnecessary and harmful quarantines of healthy children due to false positive results. COVID-19 transmission rates in schools is very low and children are highly unlikely to experience severe disease." 

You might add a personal experience or talking points outlined below.

Talking Points for SB 1479

Specific Ask: Oppose SB 1479 or abstain from voting on the bill.

Main Talking Points

  1. COVID-19 testing plans should be the responsibility of the public health department, not schools.
  2. COVID-19 transmission rates in schools are very low.
  3. Children are highly unlikely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and very few pediatric deaths associated with COVID-19 have occurred in California during the pandemic.
  4. Testing of asymptomatic students would lead to lost learning time and increased emotional stress for those subjected to implementation of such a plan.
  5. Asymptomatic testing of students can lead to unnecessary and harmful quarantines of healthy children due to false positive results.

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