Sacramento County teachers, other school workers to receive vaccinations starting Tuesday

Sacramento County teachers will begin receiving vaccines for COVID-19 beginning Feb. 16, according to county health officials.

The decision affects more than 23,000 public and 1,500 private school teachers in the county. The vaccine will also now be distributed to preschool, daycare, and childcare workers, all educational support services and administration employees, school bus drivers and crosswalk guards.

The announcement, made on Friday afternoon, noted that the scheduling of shots will depend on the availability of doses. The county indicated that some school employees will need to wait a little longer; staff at colleges, universities and technical and trade schools will become eligible later due to the limited vaccine supply.

“Vaccinating our educators and childcare providers is an important step in the effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and help return our communities back to their normal lives,” said Sacramento County Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye. “While the effort will be slow, every person that gets vaccinated is a step in the right direction.”

Appointments will be required, and the county will provide appointment portals directly to school district and childcare providers.

“Vaccinations are an important layer of safety for our educators. We are grateful to Sacramento County Public Health for collaborating on an efficient system to get vaccinations to all of our staff members,” said Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools Dave Gordon..

Vaccines have become a sticking point with many teachers’ unions as the vaccines have become more widely available to people across the country. Teachers unions across California, including the Sacramento City Teachers Association, have shared their concerns about returning to the classroom before teachers and school staff receive vaccines, and said they want vaccines as part of their school reopening plans.

The progress on vaccinations does not necessarily mean students will return to campus sooner. The effort to vaccinate teachers and staff likely could take months.

In addition, most school districts are waiting for infection rates to drop to the red tier of coronavirus spread for two weeks before opening schools.

County officials said that the vaccines will be distributed equitably to teachers already teaching in-person and those running their classrooms through distance learning.

Several schools, including private schools and those in the Folsom Cordova Unified elementary school district, are already open for in-person instruction. Natomas Unified announced plans to reopen elementary school campuses on Feb. 23.

“We need to get our schools reopened in the state of California for our youngest cohorts,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday to a news media pool reporter, during a visit to the Moscone Center vaccination site in San Francisco. “We can do that safely. Our kindergartner students, our 1st- and 2nd-graders first. We’ll get our 3rd-, 4th-, 5th- and 6th-graders in as a second cohort.

“Our special-needs kids, those foster kids, those kids that are homeless, need to be in in-person instruction safely. We can do that as a state, working with the Legislature to support efforts at the local level.”

This story was originally published February 12, 2021 at 2:06 PM.