About nine out of 10 public school employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in Washington state, the state education department announced Thursday afternoon.
The vaccination rate, 89%, is slightly lower than that of other state employees, whose total vaccinated numbers stood at about 93% of workers this week. Less than 1% of the state’s 150,000-plus school district employees failed to comply with Gov. Jay Inslee’s government worker mandate, which requires those who aren’t vaccinated against the coronavirus to have an approved religious or medical exemption. Ten percent of workers have such an exemption, data show, while in other state agencies, only 3% were offered accommodations for religious or medical reasons.
School district HR departments handled exemption requests. Districts that fail to enforce the order and do not fire non-compliant school employees will see their funding reduced, and at least one school system, the Eatonville School District in southwest Washington, has publicly refused. (Seattle Times)
