D.C. schools expand covid vaccine mandate, unlike most other districts | Washington Post - Lauren Lumpkin & Perry Stein:
July 31, 2022 - "D.C. students who are 12 and older must be vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend school this upcoming academic year. The youth vaccine mandate in D.C. is among the strictest in the nation, according to health experts, and is being enacted in a city with wide disparities in vaccination rates between its White and Black children.
"Overall, about 85 percent of students between the ages of 12 and 15 have been vaccinated against the virus, but the rate drops to 60 percent among Black children in this age range. If the city does not close this gap but does strictly enforce the vaccine mandate this fall, students of color — who experienced disproportionately large academic setbacks during the pandemic — could be at home in significant numbers next academic year.... School starts Aug. 29 in the D.C. system....
"D.C. is one of few districts to make coronavirus vaccination a requirement for attending school.... The requirement came from the 13-member D.C. Council, not from a school board. And because D.C. is a federal district rather than a state, there is no state health agency.... Elsewhere in the country, the New Orleans public school system in February added the coronavirus vaccine to its list of required immunizations for children 5 years and older. The rest of the state was scheduled to do the same for the upcoming school year, but changed course in May because the vaccines did not yet have full approval from the Food and Drug Administration for children under 16. Full approval for the vaccine for ages 12 to 15 was granted in early July....
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"Students in New York City public schools must be vaccinated against the coronavirus only if they plan to participate in certain sports, musical theater or other activities the district deems to be 'high-risk.' Los Angeles Unified School District delayed a mandate that was to take effect in the fall, pointing to the vaccination rates among older students and what the district’s superintendent said had been low transmission in schools....
"31 percent of children nationwide between the ages of 5 and 11 have been fully vaccinated....
"D.C. has a long-standing reputation of failing to enforce its immunization requirements in schools. But officials say that this year will be different and that they have an urgent plan to get students their shots this summer. They are mailing fliers, placing ads at bus stations, sending out mobile vaccine vans to communities and calling thousands of parents whose children’s vaccinations are out of date. Health clinics are opening up hundreds more appointments each weeks for youth vaccinations.
"In addition to coronavirus vaccines, students must receive their routine immunizations — including for measles, polio and whooping cough — to enroll in school. Students have 20 days from the first day of school to be in compliance with vaccine requirements before they are barred from attendance.... Because the FDA has fully authorized the coronavirus vaccine for children 12 to 15 years old this summer, students in this age group have until around the end of September to get that vaccine, according to city law. Children under 12 are not required to get the coronavirus vaccine because the shots for this age group have received only emergency-use authorization....
"D.C.’s youth vaccine mandate has been nearly a year in the making. In October, the D.C. Council introduced legislation calling for the coronavirus vaccine to be on the list of vaccines required for enrollment in school. The law stipulate[d] that the mandate goes into effect only when the shot has received full FDA authorization.... For all vaccines, students can seek religious and medical exemptions.
"In the Washington metro area, D.C. is unique in its student mandate. Montgomery County Public Schools — Maryland’s largest school district, with roughly 160,000 students — has no coronavirus vaccination requirement for students. Under a policy set by the board of education, school district employees are required to submit proof of vaccination or be tested weekly. Prince George’s County Public Schools, also in Maryland, has no coronavirus vaccination requirement for staffers or students.... Among Northern Virginia’s school systems, staff vaccinations against the coronavirus are required in Alexandria City and Arlington public schools. The school districts in Fairfax and Loudoun counties are not mandating employee vaccination."
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/31/dc-schools-covid-vaccine-mandate/
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