San Jose Unified School District will require teachers and staff to either be vaccinated or tested twice a week for the coronavirus, making the district of 30,000 students potentially the first in the Bay Area to announce such a policy.
District spokesperson Jennifer Maddox was unaware of other districts in the region adopting similar policies but said “I suspect that’s going to be the direction most districts go” as concerns grow about rising infection rates driven by the more contagious delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.
“Everyone has the same goal overall of keeping students and staff as safe as possible,” Maddox said.
California prioritized education staff for access the vaccine in March, and more than 90% of San Jose Unified’s 2,700 teachers and staff already have been vaccinated, Maddox said.
The San Jose Teachers Association had no immediate comment Wednesday. But Maddox said the association representing the district’s teachers and other labor groups representing staff were consulted and on board with the new policy, which becomes effective in August.
San Jose Unified will also mandate that masks be worn inside and outside of school buildings, regardless of vaccination status — a step further than state public health guidelines, which only require masks indoors. While indoors, students will need to maintain three feet of distance between each other.
Though vaccine requirements are not widespread among public schools, San Jose Unified is in good company with other sectors of the state as the highly contagious delta variant drives up case rates.
On Monday, California announced it will require millions of health care workers and state employees to prove they got the shot or otherwise undergo weekly testing starting in August. The California State University System followed the state’s lead the next day, rolling out a requirement that staff and students who come to campus must be vaccinated by the end of September. Santa Clara County said it will have a similar policy for its employees.
