On Friday, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that all staff will be required to get vaccinated by October 15.
This follows orders from Governor Gavin Newsom mandating vaccines or weekly testing for all staff at California's public schools.
The LAUSD mandate goes a step further, making vaccination a "condition of continued employment/service," meaning staff cannot opt out of vaccination by taking a weekly test.
An online FAQ makes clear: #LAUSD is going a step further than @CAgovernor's order — getting the #COVID19 vaccine is now "a condition of continued employment/service" for district staff. https://t.co/oBu6mWtUih https://t.co/z0Drt7pbl6
— Kyle Stokes (@kystokes) August 13, 2021
If an employee desires a religious or medical exemption, LAUSD said they "will still engage in an interactive process to determine if a reasonable accommodation exists."
Weekly testing will still occur for all employees, according to the district, regardless of vaccine status.
United Teachers of Los Angeles, the union that represents LAUSD educators, voted overwhelmingly in support of the vaccine mandate.
“Because of the protocols that UTLA educators and LAUSD families fought for and won, L.A. Unified has among the strictest COVID safety protocols in the country. But this Delta variant is unlike anything we have seen so far in this crisis — especially its impact on children — and we all need to step up to do our part to protect the most vulnerable among us,” said UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz in a press release.
This comes on the heels of rising positive COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant and a return to in-person school for LAUSD students on August 16.
