California parents know the reality better than anyone: our state runs one of the strictest school vaccination regimes in America.

Today’s “maximum parental choice” executive order, signed by Trump, may make California families optimistic that the draconian school mandate schedule has been lifted to match this new federal guidance.

It has not.

California still has a de facto school mandate for more than 30 doses of 10 vaccines.

It does provide ample hope. Here’s what the executive order does do.

Trump Outmaneuvers Judge Murphy’s Disbandment of ACIP; and Antes Up

Today, President Trump outmaneuvered Judge Brian Murphy’s order from last Spring, which paused the committee that normally makes vaccine decisions for the country. His order also reversed recent reductions to the vaccine schedule, adding back five vaccines to the routine recommendations.

Today’s executive order signed by President Trump, “Delivering Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations for Americans,” reduces the vaccine schedule (again), recommends breaking up multi-dose shots like MMR, and moves half a dozen shots into categories for high-risk children or shared clinical decision-making (rather than routine recommendation.)

The EO also recommends investigating alternative vaccine adjuvants to aluminum and other problematic ingredients, directs HHS to make further modifications to the vaccines schedule, and ensures continuous evaluation of the risk/benefit of all vaccines.

It also directs the DOJ to take legal action to protect parental authority over vaccine decision-making.

The EO’s core routine recommendation list includes: measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Hib, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV), and varicella.

That’s 11 vaccines recommended for routine administration, compared to 17 (including annual COVID shots).

California still mandates hepatitis B for school entry—something the EO moves into the high-risk or shared clinical decision-making category.

Surprisingly, the EO elevates pneumococcal and HPV into the universal core recommendation, even while California does not require them for school attendance. Elevating HPV to the routine recommendation level is also surprising given Merck just reached a $50M settlement with 200 plaintiffs who alleged the Gardasil HPV vaccine caused autoimmunity.

For Now: “This Will Only Help Red States”

I spoke with Bobby Kennedy today shortly after the signing. He was characteristically direct: “This will only help red states.” For now.

For California families living under the West Coast Health Alliance and the Governors Public Health Alliance, the immediate practical change is limited.

AB 144 deliberately insulated our state from post-January 2025 federal updates. CDPH and the Alliance continue to follow the broader American Academy of Pediatrics schedule.

California school nurses will still use the same 10-disease, 30-plus-dose checklist form tomorrow. California pediatricians will still push CDC’s old 17-vaccine, 90 dose schedule.

Future Hope for California and Other Blue States: Federal Pressure on States That Block Parental Choice

The EO goes further.

In Section 4 it orders the Attorney General to pursue legal action and challenge state laws that conflict with parental authority, religious freedom, disability accommodations, and equal protection—including the duty to offer religious and medical exemptions. I would assume California would be the first target in their sights.

It’s exciting that there may be federal legal action in addition to the legal work Free Now Foundation is doing, and in addition to the religious exemption work being done by a handful of other groups.

The EO also requires the Departments of Justice, Education, and HHS to make sure their contractors and grantees (including schools) follow those same rules.

That language is aimed at states like California that have wiped out nearly every way for parents to opt out and treat a single missing shot as grounds for exclusion from school.

What This Means for Free Now Foundation’s Cases

This EO also has direct implications for Free Now Foundation’s pending litigation.

One of our cases is awaiting a decision from the Ninth Circuit. It rests on the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children, and it invokes Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the very case that established the state standard for requiring vaccines that are safe and effective. (Note: Jacobson did not set a scientific standard for safety and efficacy. There was no scientific standard back in 1905 when Jacobson was decided by the Supreme Court.)

The new EO’s federal recognition of a narrower Gold Standard schedule is the State saying the current California schedule is not safe. This plays right into our legal argument.

Its explicit defense of parental authority strengthens the argument that California’s rigid mandate exceeds 14th Amendment constitutional bounds.

Another Free Now Foundation case asks a straightforward question: Are schools exempt from the Americans with Disabilities Act?

The EO answers that question in practice. It directs HHS to scrutinize and pursue its own contractors and grantees—including schools that receive federal funds—to ensure compliance with federal statutory obligations related to disability accommodations.

Nearly every California school accepts federal money, especially IDEA funds for special education. Those dollars come with strings. The EO makes clear that HHS will now treat disability accommodations and medical exemptions based on ADA disabilities as enforceable federal obligations, not optional state preferences.

California law is intentionally silent on ADA disabilities in regard to vaccine exemptions.

Our case to force all schools to accept the ADA waiver from vaccination (and that it be accepted outside the state database system called CAIR-ME) just got a lot stronger with this EO.

Why California Gets Away With a De Facto Mandate

So why has California been able to maintain zero religious exemptions and a medical-exemption process designed-to-fail?

The short answer is that, until now, federal enforcement has been weak or nonexistent.

The EO changes the calculus.

It instructs the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, and HHS to treat non-compliance by federally funded schools and districts as a problem worth pursuing. Schools that take IDEA money, Title I money, or any other federal support can no longer claim that state law somehow overrides federal disability, equal-protection, and parental-rights obligations.

A New Federal Ally for California Parents

For California parents, this EO is both validation and a call to action.

It arms the Department of Justice and HHS with a directive to challenge the most rigid state laws—exactly the kind of challenge Free Now Foundation has been litigating.

Red states will update their codes quickly. Here in California, the Alliance governors will resist. That resistance, however, now carries a higher political and legal price. Every family forced to choose between a single missing shot and their child’s education has a new federal standard—and new federal backing—to stand on.

The fight for parental authority in California just gained an official federal ally.

Free Now Foundation will continue to work with federal officials to get their help in California. We will also keep up the fight in the courts.