The National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers’ union in the United States, on Thursday said it supports mandatory vaccination or regular COVID-19 testing for educators as students return to classrooms for the new school year.
“As we enter a new school year amidst a rapidly spreading Delta variant and lagging public vaccination rates, it is clear that the vaccination of those eligible is one of the most effective ways to keep schools safe, and they must be coupled with other proven mitigation strategies,” Pringle said in a statement.
“We also support regular COVID-19 testing in lieu of vaccination for those not yet vaccinated or those for whom vaccination is not medically appropriate or effective,” she added. “We believe that such vaccine requirements and accommodations are an appropriate, responsible, and necessary step to ensure the safety of our school communities and to protect our students.”
The NEA endorsement of vaccine and testing mandates comes after California became the first state in the nation to require all school employees to either get vaccinated or submit to regular testings.
Under the new order issued by the California Department of Public Health, public and private schools serving students in transitional K–12 must verify and trace all their workers’ vaccination status. Workers who are not fully vaccinated will be considered unvaccinated.
Asymptomatic unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated workers, according to the order, must be tested at least once weekly with either PCR/molecular testing or antigen testing. Those who have recovered from COVID-19 more than 90 days earlier, or those with a previous positive antibody test, will not be exempted from the testing requirement.
The 310,000-member California Teachers Association, an NEA affiliate, applauded the new policy, calling it “an appropriate next step to ensure the safety of our school communities and to protect our youngest learners” against the Delta variant.