California to Require COVID-19 Vaccine or Test for Teachers

California will become the first state in the nation to require all teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.

The statewide vaccine mandate for K-12 educators comes as schools return from summer break amid growing concerns of the highly contagious Delta variant.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the new policy Wednesday as he visited a San Francisco Bay Area school that has already reopened after summer break.

"We think this is the right thing to do and we think this is a sustainable way to keep schools open," Newsom said. "And to address the No. 1 anxiety that parents like myself have - I have four young children - and that is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep their kids healthy."

California was one of the first states to mandate masks in its public school system, and one of the first to require vaccines for health care employees, Newsom said.

Several large school districts in the state have issued similar requirements in recent days, including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and the Long Beach Unified school districts.

Previously, the University of California system announced it would require vaccines for students, faculty and staff at its nine public colleges and universities.

(The Associated Press, CBS News contributed to this report.)