Washington public school employees exceed state vaccination rates, superintendent says
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, still only 76% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
On Thursday, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal held a media briefing in Olympia to inform the public that the state’s public K-12 school employees have far exceeded those statewide numbers.
“Our K–12 workforce really stepped up in a way that further protects themselves, their students, colleagues, families, and their communities at large,” Reykdal said in a news release. “With our adherence to safety protocols and nearly 90% of our staff vaccinated, our schools remain one of the safest environments for our children.”
According to data from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 90.4% of staff who work in classrooms in close proximity to students have been fully vaccinated. Staff serving in school buildings but not in classrooms have a vaccination rate of 87.6%, and staff serving in central facilities such as district offices and maintenance facilities have a vaccination rate of 86.9%.
“Our school employees are fully vaccinated at rates of 14–18 percentage points higher than the statewide average of vaccinated adults in Washington,” Reykdal said. “This means our students are more likely to come into contact with an unvaccinated adult at the grocery store, a restaurant, or another community area than at their school.”
Schools also reported that 0.5% of school employees have started the vaccination process but aren’t fully vaccinated yet. Another 0.7% obtained medical exemptions and 9.6% obtained religious exemptions.
The data also show that 0.3% of school employees didn’t obtain a vaccine or a medical or religious exemption.
Data broken down by school district, county and regional educational service district will be available in the near future, according to the news release. More information can be found on OSPI’s website.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Washington public school employees exceed state vaccination rates, superintendent says."
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