D.C. delays vaccine deadlines for students

Students attending D.C. schools will have more time to get their COVID-19 and other vaccinations this year.

Students will have until they return to school after winter break on Jan. 3 to get their COVID-19 shot, according to an announcement from D.C.’s Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn.

Originally, D.C. was going to require that students between 12 to 15 years old who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 start their primary vaccine series by Sept. 16. Unvaccinated students who are 16 and 17 years old were to have started their primary vaccine series by the start of the school year, which is Monday.

The D.C. Council added the COVID-19 vaccine to its list of required vaccinations to attend school in the city in 2021. This applies to traditional charter and public schools as well as private, parochial, and independent schools.

For routine vaccinations, such as measles, mumps and polio, students in pre-K through fifth grade will receive a letter of noncompliance on Sept. 7, with exclusion from school on Oct, 11, if they have not received their shots. Youths in 6th through 12th grade have until Oct. 3 before a letter is sent and until Nov. 4 before they are not allowed in school. D.C. officials previously stated that students could get their shots within 20 days of starting school.

The change in policy comes after a Thursday report from the Daily Signal said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser did not plan to offer virtual classes for unvaccinated students who are 12 and older.

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” We don’t offer remote learning to children. Families will have to follow the rules to get to school.” Ms. Bowser stated.

More than 40% of the District’s Black students ages 12 and up aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19, according to D.C. data.

D.C. officials said that written notices and calls will be made to homes of students who miss extended amounts of time because they’re unvaccinated against COVID-19, as well as the possibility of “making referrals to [Child and Family Services Agency], the Child Support Services Division, and the Office of the Attorney General, for truancy or educational neglect.”

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.