Vaccines Required At Washington Schools, Mask Mandate Reinstated

OLYMPIA, WA — Washington is requiring that school staff, faculty, contractors, coaches, volunteers and visitors get vaccinated against COVID-19. At the same time, the governor is also reinstating old masking requirements for indoor public spaces in an effort to tamp down on the growing wave of coronavirus infections in the state.

Vaccine requirements for teachers, school staff

"These vaccines save lives and have minimal side effects," Inslee said at a news conference Wednesday announcing the requirement. "More than 95 percent of the COVID hospitalizations we see today are among the unvaccinated. The unvaccinated people are those at risk in Washington."

The vaccine mandate also impacts contractors or anyone else who works at schools or childcare facilities where students are present.

The governor estimates the mandate applies to about 118,000 workers in licensed early learning and childcare programs, and 90,000 staff, faculty and graduate students and other school employees. The mandate does not apply to regular students.

The required groups have until Oct. 18 to become fully vaccinated. To be considered fully vaccinated, a patient must have received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and waited two weeks for full immunity to kick in.

"People will have to start their vaccination well before October 18th to comply with this requirement," Inslee said.

Many school employees likely saw this move coming. Just last week, Washington State Superintendent Chris Reykdal shared an open letter to the governor asking him to issue an executive order and require school teachers and staff members to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Now, the governor is taking him up on that plan.

"I'm convinced that we are at the point in this pandemic that without these vaccine requirements we will continue to be susceptible to new variants," Inslee said. "This is the right thing to do to save lives in the state of Washington."

As might be expected, vaccine mandates have been met with some criticism, though requiring that teachers vaccinate could prove less difficult than other demographics: Both the Seattle Education Association teachers union and the Washington Education Association have said in the past they would support a vaccine mandate if it improved public safety. The governor and superintendent argue it will, especially because it will help protect students under 12 who cannot yet get vaccinated themselves.

"The rapid increase in cases of COVID-19 due to the highly contagious Delta variant requires us to deploy every protective measure we have," said Reykdal in a written statement. "Especially when so many students aren’t yet eligible to receive the vaccine – and the protection against the virus that comes along with it – our staff must join together to create as strong of a protective barrier as possible."

Outside of mandatory vaccination, Washington schools do have a few other tools to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Students, teachers and other staff will all be required to wear facial coverings indoors while on school grounds regardless of vaccination status, and students will need to be given at least three feet of space for social distancing.

Schools that fail to enforce mask use and social distancing may end up with their funding revoked. Similarly, teachers who fail to vaccinate in time for the fall semester will not be allowed to keep their positions: Reykdal has indicated that teachers who refuse the vaccine will be subject to non-disciplinary dismissal.

Teachers and school staff are not the first Washington employees to be required to vaccinate. On Aug. 9, Inslee issued a vaccine order for health care workers and state employees.

Like the Aug. 9 order, the vaccine requirement for teachers will allow limited exemptions for those who have medical reasons or sincerely held religious beliefs for not getting the vaccine.

Reinstating the mask mandate

The governor also announced the return of the universal mask mandate Wednesday.

"We loosened masking requirements at a time when our vaccination rate was growing quite rapidly and when our case counts were dropping quite rapidly," Inslee explained. "Unfortunately now both our case counts, and our hospitalizations are exploding."

The mandate means that everyone, including the vaccinated, will be required to wear masks in public places beginning Monday. Public places listed by the governor include restaurants, shops, or any other public-facing settings.

"In a place that is open to the public, everyone needs to wear their mask," Inslee said.

The requirement does not apply to vaccinated workers who do not have face-to-face interactions with the public. It also does not apply to children under five, or athletes who are actively competing. Unvaccinated workers, however, will continue to be required to wear masks in all settings.

A similar mask directive was issued by Pierce County's top health officer earlier Wednesday, and King County reinstated its mask mandate once before, in May.

Inslee noted that the return of the old mandate was likely to irritate some critics, but urged them to channel that irritation by getting vaccinated.

"Whatever you do in response to this proclamation, please talk to your medical providers about this vaccine," Inslee said. "Please ask the people who really know."

"The sooner we get vaccinated, the sooner we can free ourselves."