Here are the COVID-19 vaccination rates by district for Pierce County school employees
The state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction released data this week showing how many public school employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The numbers show that nearly 90 percent of the state’s K-12 workforce is fully vaccinated.
In Pierce County, all public school districts have an employee vaccination rate above at least 72 percent, meaning a majority of the county’s public school workforce is vaccinated.
The data also show school districts on the western, more urban end of the county tend to have higher vaccination rates than the school districts on its more rural, eastern end.
Of Pierce County’s 15 public school districts, seven have employee vaccination rates above 89 percent, the state average. Those districts include the county’s largest school district, Tacoma, in addition to Clover Park, Peninsula, University Place, Fife, Steilacoom and Dieringer.
Those districts primarily are clustered along Pierce County’s west and northern borders, from Peninsula to the west and Fife and Dieringer to the north. They make up 8,405 employees.
The remaining school districts — Puyallup, Bethel, Sumner-Bonney Lake, Franklin Pierce, White River, Orting, Eatonville and Carbonado — have employee vaccination rates below 89 percent but higher than 72 percent.
Puyallup, Bethel and Sumner-Bonney Lake make up Pierce County’s middle, stretching to Eatonville and White River school districts at the county’s eastern borders. They make up 12,058 employees.
Still, the number of individual employees who are not vaccinated is low.
In Pierce County, the rate of employees approved for religious exemptions ranges between 6 percent and 28 percent, depending on the district. Statewide, 9.7 percent of employees obtained a religious exemption.
Districts in the western areas of Pierce County tend to have a lower number of religious exemptions than the eastern areas of Pierce County. Medical exemptions are about the same rate for each district at 1-2 percent.
Of about 20,400 employees for Pierce County districts, about 12 percent (2,400) have received a religious or medical exemption, according to calculations from the OSPI data.
On Wednesday, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department said during a board meeting that, so far this year, one school in the Eatonville School District and one school in the Bethel School District have had to move to remote learning due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
According to the health department’s presentation, 21 outbreaks involving 134 cases have occurred in K-12 schools as of Oct. 28. Vaccination rates remain low in areas where there have been large-scale school outbreaks, and a third of them are in areas with the lowest vaccination rates, home to only 7 percent of the county’s kids.
Earlier this month, Pfizer BioNTech’s COVID-19 pediatric vaccine was authorized by both the FDA and the CDC in separate reviews for use in children ages 5-11. The vaccines are arriving soon.
In August, Gov. Jay Inslee required all K–12 public and private school employees in Washington state to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or obtain a medical or religious exemption.
The breakdown for each school district follows:
Tacoma Public Schools
▪ Fully vaccinated: 93% of 3,648 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 6%
Puyallup School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 85% of 5,792 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: Less than 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 15%
Bethel School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 86% of 2,656 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 13%
Clover Park School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 93% of 1,794 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 6%
Sumner-Bonney Lake School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 87% of 1,261 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: Less than 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 12%
Peninsula School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 93% of 1,195 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 7%
Franklin Pierce School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 88% of 1,246 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 10%
University Place School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 92% of 674 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 7%
White River School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 79% of 523 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 2%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 18%
Fife School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 91% of 520 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: Less than 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 8%
Steilacoom Historical School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 92% of 337 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: Less than 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 7%
Orting School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 78% of 323 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: Less than 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 22%
Eatonville School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 80% of 228 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 2%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 18%
Dieringer School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 90% of 237 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 1%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 9%
Carbonado School District
▪ Fully vaccinated: 72% of 29 employees
▪ Obtained medical exemption: 0%
▪ Obtained religious exemption: 28%
