How new ‘learning centers’ allow some Placer County parents to avoid school vaccine mandate

Weeks after COVID-19 vaccine mandates were announced for California children, some parents began looking for alternate ways to educate their children.

Liberty Learning, a faith-based alternative K-12 learning center in Roseville, will open on Jan. 10. It is one of the latest programs to pop up amid parent frustration over the state of public schools in California, along with opposition to mandates for vaccines and masks in the classroom.

After Gov. Gavin Newsom announced COVID-19 vaccine mandates for public and private schools, some parents said they had few options other than to home school or leave the state.

While mandates will not go into effect until mid-2022, learning centers such as Liberty Learning plan to bring students together in classrooms without requiring vaccinations or masks. They’re doing so by not registering as private schools – or schools at all.

Liberty Learning is “committed to medical freedom and no vaccinations will be required” for students and staff, according to the school’s website. A representative for the school declined a request for an interview.

Public health officials say vaccines and masks are effective at preventing infection against COVID-19.

Matthew Oliver, pastor at The Family Church, where the learning center will be housed, said some parents are concerned about the quality of education in California. The mandates were simply a catalyst for them to seek an alternative learning structure. Liberty Learning is not affiliated with the non-denominational church.

“There is so much that schools teach that is not of value,” Oliver said. “Going through the educational system, I was maybe lackadaisical, but now I am motivated. We are failing our kids. There has to be a better way.”

Oliver said a recent information session at the church drew a crowd of more than 300 interested parents. At least five attendees were there to learn how they could open up their own non-traditional learning centers.

“It’s been an overwhelming response,” he said. “We are lucky enough to be able to lean on those who have gone before us, and those who are establishing (learning centers) at the same time as us so we can learn from one another.”

It’s unclear how many students have registered at Liberty Learning, but Oliver said he anticipates the center will be at full capacity when it opens. His own 17-year-old son will attend.

Is a learning center a school?

The center will offer mixed-age cohort classrooms: kindergarten through second grade, third through fifth grade, sixth through eighth grade, and high school students. The learning model allows for students to advance when they are individually ready and offers other students additional time to work at their own pace.

Half the instructors are credentialed teachers who have left or are leaving traditional schools, Oliver said.

Oliver was quick to note that Liberty Learning is not a school. Families pay $600 per month for membership – not tuition - and in turn, the center pays rent to The Family Church.

Because the center is a Private Education Association — not a private school — officials don’t apply for a private school affidavit, a registration document through the California Department of Education. The center operates under its own guidelines and is not under the jurisdiction of the state or government.

Students must enroll in K-12 schools

California education officials said children who attend learning centers will still need to be enrolled in a K-12 school.

That’s because California is a compulsory enrollment state where every child must be enrolled in a school somewhere. And under California Ed Code, anyone offering private school instruction to students must file an affidavit with the state.

But Liberty Learning likely falls under the same category as K12, Visions in Education and the other homeschooling programs across the country that do not require COVID-19 vaccines.

State officials said with hundreds of thousands of students receiving their COVID-19 vaccines, more California children are returning to traditional classrooms than in any other state.

“These learning centers are a subset of a subset and it’s not indicative of the bigger picture,” said State Deputy Superintendent Malia Vella.

While the state does not track how many learning centers are opening across the state, they are tracking school enrollment and monitoring centers to determine if they do in fact need to apply for private school affidavits.

“If something sounds like a school, we will be looking to see if they comply,” Vella said.

Vella also said that while the center may not be defined as a school, it could be subject to business mandates.

“As a business, it would be subject to following the health guidance of the county in addition to the state,” she said.

While the church is not affiliated with the learning center, Oliver is no stranger to managing a business during the pandemic.

His Roseville restaurant, House of Oliver, was one of more than a dozen local restaurants accused by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control of violating COVID-19 restrictions earlier this year. Oliver told The Bee at the time that he received a notice laying out the restrictions.

“I was not political,” Oliver said. “It wasn’t until the government began to attack small businesses and put undue restraints on us and not large corporations that we began to wake up and see what’s going on. It’s not about (political) parties. The government has gone too far and that’s where we draw the line. We care about our state, we believe in it, and we want to be given more options.”

Under California law, a school vaccine rule must include exemptions for medical reasons and personal beliefs, but the Legislature could remove those exemptions by adding the COVID-19 vaccine to an existing list of 10 immunizations required to attend in-person schools. County and district superintendents in Placer, Yuba, El Dorado counties sent a letter to the state asking to keep personal belief exemptions for students and to identify clear benchmarks as to when mask mandates will end.

This story was originally published November 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM.