Although the School Board did not vote on a student vaccine mandate at Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting, it presented unanimous strong support for a draft policy that requires a COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible students as a condition of school attendance (except for those with a medical exemption). The board is expected to vote on the new policy on Sept. 22 and families would then have eight weeks to comply with the requirement.
The new policy, as outlined in the draft reads:
In the interest of public health, proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required of all age-eligible students, as determined by the Food and Drug Administration. Age-eligible unvaccinated students shall be excluded from in-person school and referred to independent study, unless the student is exempt from the COVID-19 vaccination as prescribed by a licensed physician. Age-eligible exempt students will be required to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing at least one time per week.
PUSD’s Director of Instructional Technology Stephanie Griffin told the board that 74% of eligible students report being fully vaccinated in voluntary surveys sent in August and September to 1,385 students. Because Alameda County Department of Health has reported that almost 89% of eligible residents of Piedmont (ages 12 and up) are fully vaccinated, she said it’s likely the district numbers are higher than the surveys indicate.
Whether or not there is a vaccine mandate, no setting is immune from the Delta variant. Even small private schools that had zero cases for up to 15 straight months are seeing positive cases now. There needs to be free and timely (group) testing available from the PUSD. We need to catch even mild and asymptomatic cases in children because of its significant correlation to the development of MIS-C within 8 weeks of infection in a meaningful portion of that infected population.
I applaud the board for putting the safety of children, faculty, and the community first. This is so important and I thank you for taking this step.