In his update to the Board of Education, State School Superintendent Chris Reykdal reminded members the Board of Health technical advisory group recommended against adding COVID vaccines to the list of those required for kids to go to school. The Board of Health could still go against that recommendation and require COVID vaccines for students.
Reykdal says if that happens, it would be a “stunningly complicated effort in a short period of time to try to verify the vaccinations of 1.1 million students.
Reykdal also tells the Board that as the indoor mask requirements is lifted, it also means every district will have to revisit the case of every school employee with a vaccination exemption for medical or religious reasons. He says it’s not such a big job in districts with close to 100% vaccination rates compared to those with 60% vaccinated, but Reykdal says the unvaccinated staff will still have to take steps to prevent COVID spread, which might include masks.
At the very least, he says it could create tension in some schools with lower staff vaccination rates because he says many said they were comfortable returning to work among large groups of unvaccinated people because masks were required. That environment changes in schools across Washington March 14th, which is the first school day after the indoor mask mandate ends.
Reykdal also gave a brief wrap-up of this year’s legislative session. That included a discussion of school enrollment, which is still down below 2019 levels. That means those districts will receive less money since what they get is based on the number of students. Reykdal says districts will get half of the amount they’ll lose from reduced enrollment because lawmakers have budgeted close to $375 million to help fill the gap.
