California schoolchildren will not be required to be inoculated against COVID-19 for at least another year, state officials announced late Thursday. State education officials had hoped to institute a vaccine mandate starting July 1, 2022, but the Food and Drug Administration has not yet fully approved vaccines for kids under 16 (emergency approval allows vaccines to be distributed). Now the earliest a mandate could go into effect is a year later, on July 1, 2023. The state said it was delaying the mandate to the following school year to “ensure sufficient time for successful implementation of new vaccine requirements.” State Public Health Officer Tomás J. Aragón said he “strongly encourages” all Californians—including school-age children—to get their jabs. “We continue to ensure that our response to the COVID-19 pandemic is driven by the best science and data available.”