A new poll from the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California-Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times found that almost two-thirds of California voters favored mask and coronavirus vaccine mandates for school children.

Among parents specifically, 61 percent approved of the state's policy that “students, teachers, and staff in K-12 public schools wear masks while in school this year,” and 37 percent disapproved, the survey showed.

Fifty-five percent supported the state's plan to require the COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren upon full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Forty-two percent disapproved of that policy.

“People really want the schools to get back to where they were,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll, according to the Times. “But the desire to open schools is tempered with these feelings that these precautions should still be in place.”

Across the country, masking and vaccine mandates have been the subject of protests, and the California poll showed steep partisan divides in terms of support for the policies.

Among Republicans, 70 percent were opposed to mask and vaccine mandates in schools, compared to 85 percent of Democrats who supported them, the poll said. 

The poll was conducted from Feb. 3 to Feb. 10 and included 8,937 registered voters. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.