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New York City will require all Education Department employees to have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by September 27, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday. The announcement represents a major milestone in efforts to fully reopen the nation’s largest school district next month, and a significant escalation in the mayor’s pressure to vaccinate more New Yorkers.
Mr de Blasio has placed the reopening of the city’s schools at the center of his plan to help New York recover from the pandemic. The mayor would like to reassure anxious parents and educators that schools will be safe this year despite a slight increase in cases over the past two months related to the Delta variant, especially as the city no longer offers an option. distance learning.
The city’s vaccine requirement, which applies to approximately 148,000 education workers, is also almost certain to be a harbinger of future tenures across the country for school districts, city workers. , private companies and federal government agencies in the days and weeks to come, following the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for those 16 and older on Monday.
Speaking Monday afternoon, President Biden called for broader vaccination mandates in private businesses and government agencies, and said it was essential that as many adults as possible be vaccinated in order to ” ensure the safety of students at school.
The FDA approval has already sparked a wave of activity.
Within minutes, it triggered student vaccination warrants at State University of New York and New York City University, along with similar demands announced by the University of Minnesota system. and Louisiana State University.
The Pentagon has announced that the country’s 1.4 million active-duty troops should be vaccinated. Governor Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said all teachers in that state should be vaccinated or take weekly tests. Oil and gas giant Chevron and drugstore chain CVS have both said they will require some of their employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
A joint statement from the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and the American Nurses Association called the FDA approval “a big step forward in the global effort to end this pandemic.”
Mr de Blasio issued the education workers mandate moments before the FDA’s decision was announced, as the city seeks to finalize its plans this week for schools to reopen. Schools open at full capacity for around 1 million students in the city on September 13.
The requirement applies to almost all adults in school buildings in the city, including teachers, principals, guards, school security officers and central staff.
Education workers are now the first group of workers in New York City to face a full vaccination mandate. Last month, the city issued a warrant for all city workers that allowed those who were not vaccinated to opt for weekly testing, an option that remains in place for those who do not work in schools.
But Monday’s announcement opens the door to a broader vaccine mandate for city workers, including police officers, which the mayor said the city is considering. About 69 percent of adults in New York City are fully immunized.
“We know this will help keep everyone safe,” de Blasio said at a press conference, adding that schools in the city had extremely low transmission rates of the virus last year. . The mandate, the mayor said, will help the city “build on this success.”
New York City joins Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as Washington state and Oregon, which have all announced full immunization mandates for teachers in recent weeks.
In New York, Mr de Blasio’s push is widely supported by educators, many of whom fear returning to full capacity schools amid the Delta wave, and by the city’s powerful teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers. The city is still negotiating with the UFT and other unions representing education staff over what will happen to employees who fail to meet the mandate.
Mr de Blasio announced last month that educators who fail to comply with vaccination or testing requirements will be suspended without pay, and a similar consequence is likely for those who refuse to be vaccinated under the new mandate.
On Monday evening, District Council 37, the union that represents class assistants, school canteen staff and other school employees, said it would file a formal complaint against the city over the tenure of vaccination.
“Although we strongly encourage our members to get vaccinated, we do not believe the city has the legal authority to change terms of employment without negotiation,” Henry Garrido, president of DC 37, said in a statement.
But on Monday, UFT chairman Michael Mulgrew said the city had the legal right to create such a mandate, and only added that key details were still being chopped up.
As the city claims its legal authority to establish this mandate, there are many details of implementation, including provisions for medical exceptions, which by law must be negotiated with UFT and others. unions, and if necessary, resolved by arbitration, ”Mulgrew said. The head of the city’s school principals union echoed this message in his own statement.
But Mr de Blasio insisted that even if negotiations were stalled or failed, the mandate would continue to move forward.
The mayor and Meisha Porter, the chancellor of schools, said they expected a high level of compliance from school staff on the new tenure, which was reflected in conversations with teachers across town who said that ‘they supported him firmly. “I don’t expect a staff shortage,” Ms. Porter said.
Still, at least some DOE employees who resisted the vaccine said they were considering quitting before the school year began.
Carlotta Pope, an English teacher at Brooklyn High School who was not vaccinated, said she would consider teaching in a district that did not have a vaccination mandate.
“You are telling me now that I have to withdraw my right” to decide whether to get the vaccine, she said. “Me personally, I will not be part of this. Ms Pope said she was considering getting the shot, but was frustrated that she had no choice if she wanted to keep her job.
But many teachers greeted the news with relief.
Mike Loeb, a college science teacher in the Bronx, said knowing that all adults working in schools would be vaccinated in the fall would reduce his anxiety about seeing hallways and classrooms at full capacity again, after a year when many children were learning at home.
“If we are vaccinated, if we hide our children and our adults, I hope we can all be safe,” he said. Mr Loeb said only a tiny minority of his students performed as well online last year as they would have done in person.
Mr de Blasio has insisted all students will return to in-person learning, and he is eager to demonstrate that New York City can fully reopen schools while avoiding bitter debates over mask mandates and other issues that have rocked districts across the country. The mayor announced in May that all students and staff should wear masks in schools at all times, a policy with broad support here.
But Mr de Blasio’s goal of a smoother reopening than last year could be threatened by his administration’s delay in announcing key details on how schools will approach testing, quarantine of those who are positive and the education of students who are in temporary quarantine.
With just three weeks to go before the first day of school, families and educators say they desperately need more information. The mayor has vowed to announce the details later this week, but he has already said the city will not offer a distance learning option, despite the objections of some parents.
The mayor also said on Monday that general vaccination warrants for eligible students were “not on the table.” On Friday, the city said about 20,000 high school athletes who play high-risk sports like basketball and football should be vaccinated before their sports season begins.
The precise percentage of teachers who have been vaccinated is still unknown. City officials said more than 63% of all Education Department employees were vaccinated, but said that figure did not include employees who were vaccinated outside New Town. York. About 75 percent of teachers who live in New York City have received at least one dose of the vaccine. In contrast, only about 43 percent of police department employees have been vaccinated.
Mr Mulgrew estimated that 70 or even 80 percent of its members are vaccinated regardless of where they live, but his union also lacks definitive numbers.
The new mandate will end the guessing game.
Reporting was provided by Tracey Tully, Helene Cooper, Stephanie Saul and Daniel E. Slotnik.
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