City issues COVID-19 vaccine mandate for
Department of Education teachers, staff
Photo via Getty Images
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | AUG. 27 - SEPT. 2, 2021 23
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
All Department of Education
staff will have to get at
least one dose of a COVID-19
vaccine by Sept. 27, Mayor Bill
de Blasio announced Monday,
Aug. 23.
In late July, Mayor de Blasio
announced that all municipal
workers would have to be
vaccinated against COVID-19
by the start of the school year
on Sept. 13 or undergo weekly
testing. But now, school-based
staff will no longer have the
option to test out.
According to Mayor Bill
de Blasio, who spoke about
the mandate in a press conference
on Staten Island on Monday,
the city’s new mandate
will impact about 1480,000
DOE employees including
teachers, principals, kitchen
workers and custodians. The
policy does not apply to DOE
contracted employees like
bus drivers and for educators
and staff working in 3-Ks and
preschools not located in DOE
buildings, according to a department
spokesperson. Employees
at 3-Ks and preschools
not located in DOE buildings
are still subject to the mayor’s
vax or test policy.
A spokesperson for New
York City’s teacher’s union,
the United Federation of
Teachers, told amNewYork
that roughly 80% of all public
school teachers have gotten at
least one dose of a COVID-19
vaccine and 63% of all DOE
employees are vaccinated, according
to Schools Chancellor
Meisha Ross Porter. It is unclear
if the chancellor meant
fully or partially vaccinated.
The new mandate will impact
about 148,000 DOE workers,
according to officials.
“We know that the mandate
is going to keep everyone
safe,” de Blasio said adding
that his administration would
now begin bargaining with
city labor unions on how to
roll out the mandate. Neither
the mayor nor Schools Chancellor
Meisha Ross Porter
expressed worries over the
mandate prompting resignations
among teachers uncomfortable
with receiving the
vaccine.
The UFT seems to be on
board with the decision, but
potentially with caveats, with
the union’s president Michael
Mulgrew issuing a statement
touting the high rate of vaccination
that already exists
among public school teachers.
“Our first priority is keeping
our kids safe and the
schools open.The city’s teachers
have led the way on this
issue, with the great majority
already vaccinated,” said
Mulgrew in a statement.
“While the city is asserting
its legal authority to establish
this mandate, there are many
implementation details, including
provisions for medical
exceptions, that by law must
be negotiated with the UFT
and other unions, and if necessary,
resolved by arbitration.”
Monday’s announcement
means that New York City has
joined the ranks of Chicago
and Los Angeles which have
all recently issued COVID-19
vaccine mandates for public
school teachers.
The policy is the most recent
step by Mayor de Blasio to
ensure the health and safety
of all adults and children returning
to classrooms amid
fears over the coronavirus’s
more aggressive delta variant.
“There is just no doubt about
the urgency of this measure
when delta continues to rage
nationally,” said Chair of the
New York City Council Committee
on Health Mark Levine
who joined the mayor during
the press conference via Zoom.
“Even in a city that where vaccination
is as far along as it is
in New York City, delta still
finds a way to spread … we
have to push harder to get everyone
the life-saving benefit
of vaccination.”
De Blasio reported Monday
1,688 new cases of the virus
based on a seven-day rolling
average, a hospitalization rate
of 1.36% per 100,000 New Yorkers,
and 131 new patients with
potential COVID-19 with about
50 of those patients testing positive
for the virus.
News of the mandate coincides
with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration’s approval
of the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine for people 16 years of
age and older, which officials
say will help encourage unvaccinated
staffers and vaccine
eligible students to get
the inoculation. Responding
to a question from a reporter,
de Blasio noted that the city
does not currently have plans
to issue a vaccine mandate for
public school students 12 and
older who are eligible to get
the vaccine.
“We are going to move
heaven and earth to these next
weeks to get our students 12
years old and up vaccinated,”
de Blasio said. “We are seeing
a great response from our
young people and our parents
and we are going to make sure
we do that with every tool
we’ve got but not through a
mandate.”
Prior to Monday, all COVID
19 vaccines were approved
by the FDA under an emergency
use authorization (EUA),
with the Pfizer vaccine being
the only inoculation with an
EUA for children 12 and up.
The first day of classes is in
three weeks, which does not allow
for unvaccinated staffers
to be fully vaccinated by the
time classes start unless they
take the Johnson&Johnson
vaccine, which is a single dose
and which begins to provide
protection 15 days after being
administered.
Most of the unvaccinated
will remain so into the first
month of classes, which means
COVID-19 testing will need to
take place in schools. Last
week, the mayor promised to
release details on the city’s
school testing policy — whether
or not schools in neighborhoods
with low vaccination
rates will be required to undergo
testing more frequently
— the week of Monday, Aug.
23, but has yet to do so.
Dr. Dave Chokshi, commissioner
of the New York
City Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene, did not
provide details on school testing
except that “in many instances”
the department will
provide testing kits to public
school families.
DOE employees will be
required to upload proof of
vaccination into a “vaccine
portal” launched earlier this
month by Sept. 27, officials
added.
EDUCATION
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