After years of organizing around California’s school vaccination requirements, the parents who founded Informed Policy Advocates are seeking a legislative review of the impact of the medical exemption process on families and physicians.
The group wants lawmakers to examine whether the system accommodates children with complex medical histories while protecting public health. Its founders say a hearing would allow families, physicians, and state officials to examine barriers to medically appropriate exemptions and consider changes.
Established in 2025, Informed Policy Advocates (IPA) grew out of constituent organizing that began in 2019. The group works with its registered lobbyists to research legislation, develop policy proposals, and advocate on behalf of its members, mainly parents of young children throughout the state, to bring their concerns to lawmakers. Its priorities include informed consent, consumer protections, and civil rights.
Its founders first came together in opposition to Senate Bill 276, a 2019 measure that expanded state oversight of medical exemptions from school vaccination requirements. Teachers, engineers, doctors, nurses, and business owners joined parents concerned that the proposal would restrict physicians’ discretion.
The founders describe their early Capitol visits as frustrating. They say some legislative staff members dismissed their concerns and that parents encountered legislators' stereotypes about who opposed the bill. Those experiences persuaded them to learn about the legislative process and begin building lasting relationships in Sacramento.
“One legislator admitted to a group of 10 parents with medically fragile children that we did not fit the stereotype of being young, dumb, entitled moms who only cared about ourselves. We were constituents with valid concerns. But when it came time to vote, the legislator followed her colleagues, rather than her constituents,” co-founder Darrlene Alquiza recalled of one meeting with an assemblymember.
Alquiza and fellow co-founders Kris Dukes and Jessica Cabrera saw those encounters as a reason to stay involved. Lawmakers often go into office hoping to address specific issues and then are charged with weighing in on many subjects they know very little about, Alquiza said, making it essential for constituents to explain their concerns clearly and return with specific proposals.
Personal experiences shaped that approach. Cabrera says her children developed lead toxicity while the family lived beneath an airport flight path. She recalls that their pediatrician raised concerns about vaccination given their medical histories, but that the hospital network’s policy against issuing medical exemptions created a barrier to school enrollment.
Dukes says her first child developed serious health problems, including encephalitis, after vaccination. She says her child’s developmental difficulties required her to leave work to arrange and provide support services.
Alquiza’s perspective developed through her work as a California teacher and later as an education director in New York City. She recalls that before employment, her physician had her do an antibody test to see if a measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination was needed, rather than just giving her the shot. Years later, concerned about health problems she attributed to her daughter’s vaccinations, she began examining how school requirements affected families and their doctors. She found that in California, antibody testing is not recognized to meet school requirements, whereas many other states do.
Those encounters helped turn a single legislative effort into a sustained advocacy goal to update and improve current policies. The founders say their earlier organizing led to a nonprofit through which they pursued parental, educational, and employment rights. Together, they effectively supported bills, successfully stopped bills with concerning language, and helped essential workers, students, and families in California. The launch of IPA in 2025 gave their work a more focused legislative strategy.
Public-health authorities have defended school vaccination requirements as a way to reduce outbreaks and protect children who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons. California’s exemption system is intended to preserve medically appropriate exemptions while protecting children from vaccine-preventable disease. The parents opposing the 2019 legislation questioned how the state would balance those goals with a physician’s judgment about children with unique medical situations.
Well intended legislation has created a chilling effect that is negatively impacting both doctors and children with complex medical issues. Under SB 276 and its companion measure, SB 714, new exemptions must be issued by California-licensed physicians under very strict guidelines through a statewide electronic system and are subject to review by the California Department of Public Health. Doctors have reported to IPA that in the exemption process, there is limited to no communication between the department and the doctors. Parents may appeal a revocation, but most are not informed that an appeal process exists.
A legislative setback sharpened that focus. In a May 21, 2026, Capitol Weekly op-ed, Alquiza, IPA’s CEO, discussed the unsuccessful effort to advance SB 1377, a proposal to revise the medical exemption system. She argued that an informational hearing could provide a foundation for future legislation.
IPA says its subsequent advocacy has helped secure a Senate Health Committee field hearing on medical exemptions for immunization requirements, scheduled for Thursday, November 12, 2026, at the County Administration Center in San Diego.
Cabrera says the hearing should provide lawmakers with a public record of families’ experiences, physicians’ concerns, and the system’s effects. IPA has requested that the Committee recommend a review of state data on exemption requests, reviews, revocations, and outcomes, as well as the processes for handling decisions and appeals.
An informational hearing will not itself change the law. For IPA, the next step is to turn the evidence into proposals that lawmakers can assess, taking into account both public-health objectives and the experiences of families navigating the exemption system.
“We want to see bills introduced to improve California’s exemption policies,” Dukes said, “and we hope to lead the charge in this area.”
More about the organization: Informed Policy Advocates
Related commentary: Alquiza’s Capitol Weekly op-ed
Hearing information:
Title: Medical Exemptions for Immunization Requirements: What Do the Data Say?
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2026
Time/Location: 10 a.m. – County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway Room 327, San Diego, CA 92101
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