“It's not just teachers and administrators that are needed in schools. One of the biggest worries was losing critical numbers of support staff including cafeteria workers and school safety agents, Cannizzaro said. “I've heard from several schools that have anywhere between 30 and 100 people currently on a non-compliant list.” “At this point, principals and superintendents have been reaching out consistently to tell us that they are concerned about not having enough staff come Tuesday morning, September 28th,” said Mark Cannizzaro, president of the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators union in a press conference Friday. The city’s teacher and principal unions continued to push back against the Monday deadline, saying the short timeframe will leave many schools seriously understaffed next week if thousands of unvaccinated teachers and staff are forced to stay home. Teachers who don’t qualify for these exemptions but still refuse to get vaccinated have to either take unpaid leave and can keep their health insurance, or they can resign and get severance. Staff who qualify for medical and religious exemptions can switch to assignments outside the classroom. O'Hanlon did not immediately respond to questions about the number of applications for exemptions the DOE has received, or what guidelines the department is using for approving applications. The substitute teachers and central office employees will have at least one dose of the vaccine. There are about 11,000 substitute teachers available, and an unspecified number of educators working in the DOE central offices who may be deployed to schools as well, according to the DOE. “We administered 7,000 vaccinations on school campuses across the city last week, hired thousands of new teachers and staff, and have a large reserve of qualified workers who are ready to fill in if needed.” “The vast majority of employees have been vaccinated and the number will continue to rise over the coming days,” she added. She noted that 87% of teachers have received at least one dose. There may still be more exemptions granted because the DOE said they’re still reviewing applications.Īs of Friday, “81% of all DOE employees have received at least one dose of the vaccine,' said Katie O’Hanlon, a spokesperson for the DOE in a statement. “And again, there's well over 100,000 teachers and staff, and we're going to work with anyone who needs to get vaccinated between now and the deadline.” Only in the hundreds have been approved so far,” de Blasio told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Friday. “What we're seeing so far is a very small number of requests for medical or religious exemption. De Blasio has said the religious exemptions would also be limited to “two well-established religions, Christian Science and Jehovah’s Witnesses, that have a history on this, of a religious opposition.” The mayor warned those exemptions would be rare. After legal challenges by unions representing DOE workers, the city was forced to carve out exemptions for medical or religious reasons. Mayor Bill de Blasio has imposed a strict policy on DOE employees who must show proof of at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of Monday, September 27th.

But union leaders warned that many Department of Education staffers in non-teaching positions remain unvaccinated, which could leave schools short-staffed next week.

Over 500 public school employees have officially been granted medical or religious exemptions to the city’s vaccination mandate.

Jehovah witness vaccine mandate