Washington DC is living in the past because kids 12 and older must have the COVID vaccine to attend school, which begins on August 29.
The Daily Signal’s Douglas Blair told Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser that the mandate would keep 40% of black teens at home and not at school.
Bowser insisted Blair was wrong. Except he was not wrong.
From The Daily Signal:
The data shows that around 60% of black kids aged 12-17 have received a complete COVID-19 vaccine regimen, meaning 40% are unvaccinated or have not received a second shot if necessary. The numbers flip for blacks aged 18-24, as the D.C. data shows 60% of adults in that age bracket are unvaccinated or have not received their second shot if necessary.Per D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education website, “Beginning in the 2022-23 school year, the COVID-19 vaccine is required for school enrollment and attendance in the District of Columbia for all students who are of an age for which there is a COVID-19 vaccination fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”As of right now, that means D.C. students aged 12 and up will have to be vaccinated or they will be unable to attend school in person.
Washington DC is one of the rare school districts with COVID mandates. The decision comes from the 13-member city council, not a school board. It doesn’t help that the freak-out over COVID kept kids from receiving their regular vaccinations. You know, vaccines for diseases that are dangerous for children:
D.C. is one of few districts to make coronavirus vaccination a requirement for attending school. The mandate reflects, in part, the city’s unique education governance structure. The requirement came from the 13-member D.C. Council, not from a school board. And because D.C. is a federal district rather than a state, there is no state health agency with which the city can be in conflict.—In addition to coronavirus vaccines, students must receive their routine immunizations — including for measles, polio and whooping cough — to enroll in school. Students have 20 days from the first day of school to be in compliance with vaccine requirements before they are barred from attendance. Schools should have data showing which students have been vaccinated to encourage families with unvaccinated students to get their shots if they show up to the first day of school without them.Because the FDA has fully authorized the coronavirus vaccine for children 12 to 15 years old this summer, students in this age group have until around the end of September to get that vaccine, according to city law. Children under 12 are not required to get the coronavirus vaccine because the shots for this age group have received only emergency-use authorization.Many students missed routine doctor appointments during the pandemic, and local officials estimate that a quarter of students are out of date with their vaccines.Bandealy, the D.C. health official, said that high-schoolers have the highest out-of-compliance rates.
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