OLYMPIA, Wash. — Nearly 90% of Washington state's K-12 and higher education employees are in compliance with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which means they either got the vaccine or received an exemption accommodation.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal discussed the data Thursday afternoon.
Leading up to the Oct. 18 mandate deadline, communities and industries across Washington braced for staffing shortages in vital areas due to workers choosing to leave their jobs over getting their shots.
Education was a particular area of concern with kids headed back to classrooms. Teachers were included in the state's COVID-19 vaccine mandate after a request from Reykdal asking for K-12 employees to be included.
The new data released by Reykdal's office show that schools statewide lost 470 employees due to the mandate, including about 188 teachers.
Broken down further, those working with children in classrooms had about a 90% compliance rate with just over 9% being accommodated through a medical or religious exemption.
Accommodations for teachers were decided locally, but Reykdal said some examples included increased masking, further social distancing and restrictions on where those teachers and employees could go throughout school campuses.
For other employees in schools, like custodians and lunchroom workers, compliance was at nearly 88%, and for those in district and central offices had a compliance rate of about 87%.
“What we are seeing is stunning because in every single county in the state of Washington, our educators exceeded the overall vaccinated population in that county, sometimes twice as much," Reykdal said. "Schools are quite frankly the safest place for kids to be.”
However, due to the strain of contact tracing, ongoing staff shortages and students having to quarantine due to exposure, Reykdal spent much of his time explaining that the state's education system would need relief from the government and legislature and asking for further guidance from the health department.
Due to protocols, the absentee rate for students across the state is around 14%, up from 8-9% before the pandemic, prompting Reykdal's office to ask health officials to establish a vaccination threshold at schools to keep kids in class even if they are exposed to the virus.
Additionally, public school enrollment is down 3.5% this school year, which translates to about $400-$500 million in its budget. Reykdal said his office is asking the state legislature to keep that money in education in anticipation of more students returning to public schools and to help with the education department's recovery.
“What we do not want to see is our schools, at a time of a massive labor shortage, a very difficult time hiring folks in and going through the double duty of returning to in-person learning while deploying these health protocols—this is not a time to reduce more staff," Reykdal said.
He also announced that his office is also going to pursue another $200 million over the next two years for school nurses and to establish permanent health programs at schools.
"Schools are where you can really build good health habits. It’s a big initiative of ours," Reykdal explained.
Other areas included in the mandate, which included most state workers and health care workers, seem to have had high rates of compliance, yet thousands still lost their jobs after either refusing to get vaccinated or not being able to work out a reasonable accommodation after filing for an exemption.
On Wednesday, the Washington Department of Health said there were more than 180 outbreaks related to K-12 schools throughout the state from Aug. 1 to Sept. 20, but said the median number of cases in these outbreaks was five. This indicates schools are doing well with layered prevention measures and in their response to positive COVID-19 cases, according to Deputy Secretary of COVID-19 Response Lacy Fehrenbach.
Additionally, the state is working with schools to distribute the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11 once it is federally approved, which is expected to happen next week.
Reykdal said Thursday that he did not support a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for students yet, adding that he thinks that process needs to go through the federal level first and then through the state.
The education department is expected to release more detailed vaccination data for its employees Friday.