California will become the first state in the United States to require all teachers and school staff to be vaccinated or vaccinated every week Coronavirus disease Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday that as concerns about the highly contagious variant of delta grew, the school was returning from the summer vacation.
The State Department of Public Health stated that the new policy applies to public and private schools and will affect more than 800,000 employees, including approximately 320,000 public school teachers and cafeteria staff and cleaners. It also applies to school volunteers.
Newsom announced a new policy for a school in the San Francisco Bay Area, which reopened face-to-face classes earlier this week. Many California schools have reopened classes, and others will begin in the coming weeks.
“We think this is the right approach, and we think it is a sustainable way to keep schools open and address the primary anxiety of parents like me about young children,” said Newson, the father of four. “That is to know that the school is doing everything it can to ensure the safety of our children.”
Several large school districts in the state have issued similar requirements in recent days, including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Long Beach Unified School District.
As in the rest of the United States, the surge in COVID-19 infections in California is disturbing because the delta variant represents the vast majority of new cases. Compared with previous strains, it has a greater impact on children, prompting more and more teachers’ unions to ease earlier opposition to mandatory vaccine requirements.
The two largest teacher unions in California, both powerful political allies of the governor, said on Wednesday that they fully support Newsom’s policies.
The California Teachers’ Association and the California Teachers’ Federation both quoted state and national polls showing that nearly 90% of educators have been vaccinated, but said that the spread of delta variants is expanding, especially among children, which makes the new policy necessary. Children under 12 years of age are not yet eligible for the vaccine.
CTA Chairman E. Toby Boyd said: “Educators want to be in the classroom with their students, and the best way to ensure that this happens is to get all medically qualified people vaccinated and take strong tests. And multi-level security measures.” A statement.
Although Hawaii Governor David Iger announced last week that all Department of Education staff are required to disclose their vaccinations or receive weekly testing, California’s order is much broader and applies to public and private schools in the country. All staff working. The most populous state.
Mandatory vaccine
In the past few weeks, Newsom has required all health care workers to be fully vaccinated and required all state employees to be vaccinated or choose to be tested weekly. The weekly test schedule is based on the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For schools, Newsom has issued instructions for masks applicable to teachers and students. But it was not until Wednesday that he left the decision on whether a vaccine was needed to the local area.
The vaccine authorization is dangerous for the Democratic governor, who will face a recall election next month, partly because he is angry about the way the pandemic is handled.
California was the first state to order a pandemic lockdown in March 2020, and the state closed businesses and schools across the state. Although many private schools maintain face-to-face teaching, most public schools allow students to conduct distance learning for up to a year. Newsom faced strong political pressure from opponents and supporters of the Republican Party to reopen the school, and they urged him to overthrow the powerful union. Many public schools finally reopened last spring, lagging behind most of the country.
This fall, Newsom promoted a full resumption of face-to-face learning. But his order to wear a mask at school angered some parents and was criticized by Republican candidates competing to replace him.
On Wednesday, several Republican candidates criticized the new plan. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Falcona, who encouraged everyone to get vaccinated, said that state officials “should not implement a statewide uniform order in every school district in the state,” but should leave it to the local school district.
Details of how the new policy will be implemented were not announced. The union stated that these logistical tasks still need to be resolved.
Matthew Hardy, a spokesperson for the California Federation of Teachers, said the union supports a plan that allows optional testing.
“We think people shouldn’t lose their jobs because of this,” he said.
Amelia Matier, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, stated that schools must fully comply with the new policy by October 15th to allow time for schools to verify vaccination status and to conduct regular checks on unvaccinated staff. Weekly testing.
Newsom does not rule out extending the requirement to students after the vaccine is approved for children under 12 years of age.
“We will consider all options in the future,” he said in response to a question. “We believe this is a meaningful first step.”
— Ronayne reports from Sacramento, California.
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