Teacher Centers In California Determined By Location, Happiness | Lost Coast Outpost

###

How quickly teachers can expect to be vaccinated depends largely on their place of residence and can determine whether the majority of California students will return to campus this spring – or next fall.

Vaccinations by teachers have emerged as a central point of contention in California’s debate over school reopening because unions representing teachers and school employees cited access to vaccines as one of their demands before returning to campuses.

But with limited supply and two-way priority groups, many of California’s largest provinces have not yet begun offering vaccines to teachers. And while some counties expect to start vaccinating teachers within the next week or so, several others have told CalMatters that the scarcity of their supply makes it difficult to project when their educators can expect a dose. Some provinces do not expect to offer vaccinations to teachers for a month or the end of March.

The deviation according to province in vaccinations for teachers runs the spectrum:

• In Marin County, many campuses have been open for some time and educators began getting vaccines last month.
• Teachers in Ventura County are likely to be vaccinated in a month
• The provinces of Santa Clara and San Mateo have no estimate for when this could happen.

Mixed messages and a decentralized approach led to a chaotic explosion of the vaccine about two months after the first doses predicted for health workers arrived in California midline.

Government Gavin Newsom said at a news conference today that schools are unlikely to reopen this school year as vaccinations are a prerequisite for every teacher. ‘If you receive less than 600,000 first doses a week, and you start doing math … then we need to be honest with people and let them know … that it’s very unlikely that we’ll be able to achieve that idealistic goal before the end. of the school year due to the scarce supply of vaccinations, ”he said.

Currently, many of the largest provinces in the state are approaching or starting to distribute doses to those in the first tier of Phase 1B of the state’s vaccination priority list. The broad group consists of 8.5 million Californians and includes teachers, farm workers and first responders as well as residents 65 and older.

Newsom acknowledged on Monday that vaccine shortages hampered the ability of local public health departments to vaccinate teachers in large numbers. A recent plan by the governor to encourage school districts to reopen campuses with extra funding per pupil has stalled after many school officials, unions and lawmakers said it was unworkable.

At his press conference on Monday, Newsom said he hoped to announce a new school reopening agreement with the Legislature ‘this week’ that would include a prioritization framework to get our teachers vaccinated. ‘

“The challenge is obvious,” Newsom said. “In each province, they have different capacity issues, different demographics, different issues regarding the availability of the vaccine and the number of people they prioritize at those levels.”

Several public health experts as well as the governor, who is under intense public pressure to reopen K-12 public schools, said personal learning can be done safely without vaccinating educators if accompanied by strict preventive measures such as masking, ventilation and co-ordinating students.

Newsom, who recently told school superintendents that vaccinating teachers for school reopening is essential to keep them closed in the spring, cited a low number of distributions in reopening schools as proof that personal education does not lead to greater distribution in the community did not lead. In January, 87 cases were linked to schools, according to Newsom, lower than in November and December, despite the increase in cases and deaths from the state.

However, the state has not yet published any information on cases in schools to confirm the figures cited by Newsom. It remains one of the few states that does not publicly monitor which schools are open and whether they have experienced outbreaks. Under new state leadership, the California Department of Public Health began collecting this information from schools on January 25; the agency said in a statement Friday that it will provide the information on its new school website soon.

Provinces race against time

In many of California’s largest provinces, a dwindling clock has increased the game in the intricate race to vaccinate educators. Most public schools in the state end the academic term in late May and early June, and for complete vaccination, two vaccine doses are administered that are one month apart.

As of Friday, Santa Clara County has not vaccinated educators, and health and education officials have been unable to offer a timeline for mainly due to limited vaccine supply, they said. The adjoining San Mateo County remains in Phase 1A and gives priority to “those who are eligible with the greatest risk of death.” Other major provinces like San Diego, San Joaquin and Kern are not yet vaccinating educators, citing vaccine shortages.

Countries like Marin and Napa, where many campuses have reopened, began vaccinating their educators last month. Several smaller, rural provinces have made greater progress in vaccinating their teachers compared to larger provinces.

Officials in Sacramento County expect teachers to be able to get vaccinated in the next few weeks, depending on supply.

Dr. Robert Levin, health director in Ventura County, said he expects the vaccine to be available in a month.

Meanwhile, Shasta County, where only two schools offer personalized education, plans to host its first educational vaccine clinic on Saturday. Placer County recently opened its clinic for educators.

Joe Prado, divisional manager of public health care in Fresno County, said the province was considering ‘late March to April’ as the earliest vaccines would be offered to educators based on current demand and supply. The delay between doses would in that case begin personal instructions in April or May. Prado said the limited week-to-week vaccine provision allocated to the province has made it ‘very difficult’ to roll out faster for those eligible for Phase 1B.

Several districts in Fresno County, including Clovis Unified, began offering personalized instruction last fall before the latest boom. As the rate in the country has fallen below 25 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, closed campuses will again be allowed to reopen to lower students, according to dr. Rais Vohra, the interim health officer of Fresno County.

“Our experience in Fresno County is that when all the different layers of protection are applied, the number of broadcasts and outbreaks is really low, especially compared to what’s going on in the rest of our community,” Vohra said.

In Orange County, a Department of Education spokesman said educators could be eligible for the vaccine by mid-February, “if doses are available.” The province plans to introduce teachers’ vaccinations based on the risk of exposure, which means that teachers who work personally with children with special needs will be at the forefront as distance educators.

Alameda County, which entered Phase 1B this week, also plans to give preference to the vaccination of educators who teach in person, according to provincial caretaker LK Monroe. According to Phase 1B, approximately 325,000 residents are eligible for Phase 1B, which requires 650,000 vaccine doses and at least a month to complete vaccinations before moving into the state’s reduced system.

“If every educator were vaccinated at the same time, it would not be possible under the current circumstances,” Monroe said.

Alameda Unified, one of the first districts in the country to set a reopening date, plans to bring back K-5 students on March 8 without vaccinating teachers. Superintendent Pasquale Scudari cited public health counseling and recent remarks by the director of the Centers for Disease Control at a recent board meeting as proof that basic schools can be safely reopened before full vaccination. ”

The province has told superintendents that they are expected to receive between 10,000 and 15,000 vaccine doses per week, Scutari said, far below demand. Because the district has set a fixed deadline, its teachers are likely to be given preference for vaccination.

Following growing frustrations by parents and a lawsuit filed by the city attorney, backed by the mayor, San Francisco Unified reached a preliminary agreement with its employee unions over the weekend linking access to the reopening of vaccines.

Under the plan, the school will return to campuses when the city reaches the red level under the state’s system for reopening schools and businesses – which means less than 7 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants – if teachers and staff have access to the vaccine. Schools in San Francisco will physically reopen in the orange level without the vaccination requirements under the plan.

Dr. Jeanne Noble, director of COVID response for the UC San Francisco emergency department, said it was unlikely the agreement would result in students returning to campuses anytime soon. Realistically, Noble said, it could take a minimum of ten weeks to vaccinate all of the city’s teachers given the current stock.

Noble and other health workers have called for schools to be reopened this month without vaccination. Schools can work safely with strict safety measures, she said, and 11 months away from schools has resulted in serious damage to students’ mental and physical well-being.

“It’s not a proposal or an agreement that will lead to personal training this year, just because of the scarcity of vaccines and the logistics to carry it out,” Noble said.

“I think it makes them likely to go back to school when San Francisco is in the orange level.”

###

Barbara Feder Ostrov contributed to this story. CALmatters.org is a non-profit media company that explains California policy and politics.