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NEW YORK (AP) – All teachers and other staff at public schools in New York City will need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, officials said on Monday as the country’s largest school system braced for the start classes next month.
The city has previously said teachers, like other city employees, should get vaccinated or tested every week. for the virus. The new policy marks the first vaccination mandate without options for a large group of city workers in the country’s most populous city, although Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday that football, basketball coaches and students -ball and other “high risk” sports reportedly get vaccinated before the start of the game.
Now, around 148,000 school employees – and contractors who work in schools – will need to receive at least a first dose by Sept. 27, according to an announcement from the Democratic mayor and the departments of health and education. city education.
“We want our schools to be extremely safe,” said de Blasio. Chancellor of Schools Meisha Ross Porter called the policy “another level of protection for our children,” including her own Grade 11 student.
The city did not immediately indicate what the penalty would be in case of refusal, or whether there would be exemptions. The previous vaccination or testing requirement provided for unpaid suspensions for workers who did not comply.
Unions representing school workers have said they need answers and negotiations.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Teachers’ Federation, said his priority was to “keep our children safe and schools open”, but provisions for medical exceptions and other details “must be negotiated with UFT and other unions, and if necessary, resolved by arbitration.
Robert Troeller, the chairman of the guards’ union, said he was concerned that the city had announced the requirement without negotiation.
Troeller said he believed about 60% of the 850 members of Local 891 of the International Union of Operations Engineers got at least a first chance. But at least some who don’t “are strongly opposed to it,” he said.
At least 63% of all school employees have already been vaccinated. This figure does not include those who were able to get vaccinated outside the city.
The new requirement came as federal regulators gave full approval Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, one of three vaccines available in the United States. All already have an authorization for emergency use, but officials hope full approval will increase public confidence in the vaccines.
School starts on September 13 for about 1 million students in the city’s public schools.
New York and other cities and states have fought the highly contagious delta variant of the virus by stepping up pressure to get more people vaccinated.
Last week, New York City began requiring proof of vaccination t o enter the dining rooms of restaurants, gyms and many other public places, a first policy in the country that a few other cities have copied since its announcement. Meanwhile, New York State announced last week that hospital and nursing home workers should get vaccinated.
Vaccination mandates for teachers are quite rare so far in the United States, although Washington state, for its part, says teachers must be vaccinated or fired.. Vaccination or testing requirements are a bit more common, existing in places like Los Angeles and Chicago, which are the two largest American school districts after New York.
A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Americans say that students and teachers should be required to wear face masks in school, and that eligible teachers and students should also be required to be vaccinated. But Democrats and Republicans differ sharply on these issues, according to the poll.
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