California to have a mandate for teachers
Under a new order that Newsom will unveil Wednesday, California will become the first state in the nation to implement such a requirement, which will be effective in mid-October, sources told CNN.
The mandate was first reported by Politico on Tuesday night.
School districts in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and Long Beach have already implemented such a measure. The state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, has required weekly Covid testing, but stopped short of mandating educators be vaccinated.
“We’re getting all our kids safely back in in-person instruction,” Newsom said Friday in an event touting mental health resources. “We want to do it in a safe way where these kids can get that full support.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has voiced his support mandating that teachers be vaccinated.
“We are in a critical situation now,” he added. “We’ve had 615,000-plus deaths and we are in a major surge now as we’re going into the fall, into the school season. This is very serious business. You would wish that people would see why it’s so important to get vaccinated.”
Most districts and unions in California have been supportive of the health order, according to sources.
CNN has reached out to the California Teachers Union, which represents educators across the state.
“Those that are unvaccinated need to get vaccinated. That way we can keep our kids, without any stress or anxiety, back in person throughout the school year,” Newsom said Friday.
California is home to more than 1,000 school districts employing more than 300,000 teachers, with about 6.1 million students.
Last month, Newsom said California will require all state employees and health care workers to provide proof of vaccination status or get regular testing amid a surge of cases from the highly contagious Delta variant.
Employees are required to prove they have received the vaccine by showing their vaccination cards or through a verification code provided by the California Department of Public Health.
Unvaccinated state employees are required to get tested at least once a week and to wear N95 masks at all times. Unvaccinated health care workers have to get tested at least twice a week, health officials said.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and New York City have similar Covid-19 mandates for employees.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
