Washington's vaccination requirements for K-12 employees

As multiple states gear up to start a school year with the ongoing pandemic, Washington joins the list of states to give out vaccination mandates for the K-12 employees. The Governor of Washington Jay Inslee on Wednesday announced that all Public, Private, and Charter school employees need to be fully vaccinated by October 18th to be eligible to continue employment. This announcement was made keeping in mind the increasing number of positive cases and hospitalization in light of the Delta variant. In addition to this, the state has mandated masks to be worn indoors regardless of the vaccination status.

Inslee said that this decision was taken in order to protect the lives of educational staff and students, especially since the majority of them are under the age of 12 and have not been vaccinated. Employees whose work deals with any form of child care or child-rearing will also have to be fully vaccinated.

Previously, California became the first state to mandate vaccine and weekly testing for employees who work in the education sector. Joined by California are Los Angeles and Chicago whose schools districts require employees to be fully vaccinated by October 15th and get weekly testing.

Source: The Washington Post