Over 28K NYC school staffers still unvaccinated as deadline looms
More than 28,000 Department of Education employees — including 10,000 classroom teachers — remain unvaccinated just days before a city-mandated deadline.
As of Tuesday, the DOE said 87 percent of all 78,000 city teachers have had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
The remaining 13 percent comprise roughly 10,100 holdouts — or roughly six educators for each of the city’s 1,600 schools.
Of all 130,000 DOE employees — a group that includes food service and custodial staff — only 78 percent were vaccinated as of Tuesday.
The remaining 22 percent leaves about 28,600 employees who have yet to roll up their sleeve ahead of a Sept. 27 deadline imposed by City Hall mandating all DOE staffers get the vaccine or become ineligible to work in schools.
Those who do not receive a medical or religious exemption and are still unvaccinated at the deadline can either take a year of unpaid leave or exit the DOE with a severance package.
The DOE declined to say how many teachers have applied for or received exemptions Tuesday — but teachers’ union sources told The Post that only a small fraction of accommodation requests are being granted.
Asked about potential staffing shortfalls, Mayor Bill de Blasio and schools Chancellor Meisha Ross-Porter said they don’t expect complications.
“We are not seeing something that would have a profound impact on the teaching corps numbers for next Monday,” de Blasio said at his daily briefing Monday.
Porter said teachers still have a week to get their first dose and that the DOE has recently bolstered its teaching ranks.
“We think we are moving in the right direction,” she said Monday, adding that more teachers were getting jabbed each day. “We hired 5,200 new teachers — larger than we’ve hired in past years. So we feel confident we’ll be staffed.”
Porter said previously that the city can use substitutes to address any faculty deficits that might arise next week.
Meanwhile, the New York State Education Department last week extended an emergency program that has allowed it to widen the teaching pool.
The initiative allows applicants “to work in New York State public schools or districts for two years while taking and passing the required exam for the certificate or extension sought,” according to the NYSED website.
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge temporarily blocked City Hall’s vaccine mandate for DOE staffers last week.
Judge Laurence L. Love issued a temporary restraining order stemming from a lawsuit filed by municipal unions that oppose the requirement.
But the city said that ruling won’t impact the Sept. 27 deadline because Love is set to hear arguments on the case and rule on the mandate on Wednesday.
De Blasio has argued that the vaccine requirement will guard against COVID-19 outbreaks and closures in city schools.
