School boards for the two largest school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area will soon cast their votes regarding vaccine mandates for all staff and students above age 12. 

The vote for West Contra Unified's school board, which serves over 28,000 students, will take place on Tuesday. Oakland's school board serves approximately 50,000 students and will vote on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. 

"Vaccination is really one of the best tools we have in the toolbox to limit outbreaks at our schools and to keep our teenagers safe and in school learning," Sam Davis, the vice president of the Oakland School Board said to a local ABC affiliate.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that COVID-19 infections in students spiked in August, especially among middle and high school students. 

The AP reported that vaccine mandates already exist in some parts of the state, such as Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the country.  

If vaccine mandates are approved, the districts would have some of the most strict COVID-19 policies in Northern California. The state already requires that public school staff get vaccinated or tested weekly beginning in October but does not yet have a comparable mandate for students, the AP noted.