Sutter

Feather River Charter School in Sutter County, part of the Sequoia Grove Charter Alliance in Northern California, reported to state regulators that the program is 100% “nonclassroom-based.”

Tom Reusser, Sutter County Schools’ superintendent, said such virtual schools were largely to blame for the county’s childhood immunization rate, which, at 73%, is the state’s lowest.

Public health officials in Sutter County also attributed their decline in vaccination rates to a “small number of charter schools and independent study students.”

Feather River, for example, serves students in Sutter, Butte, Yuba, Placer, Sacramento, Yolo and Colusa counties, according to the school’s website.

In a Q&A posted on its website, Feather River, the school in Sutter County, notes that because the school is an “independent study program with no classroom-based instruction,” immunizations are not required.