Possible deal over teacher vaccines could bring elementary students back to class
LA TimesAlik Laddon arrives with his son, first-grader Caden Andino, last week after the reopening of Alta Vista Elementary School in Redondo Beach. Los Angeles school chief Austin Beutner leveled his own political salvo on the vaccine issue Monday, saying that if he got 25,000 COVID-19 vaccinations he could reopen elementary schools for a quarter-million children as soon as overall health conditions in the county permit. You heard that right — vaccinating 25,000 people will allow us to reopen elementary school classrooms for 250,000 children and help their half-million-plus family members start on the path to recovery and allow many of them to go back to work.” That target of 25,000 would include principals, teachers, bus drivers, custodians and librarians — school nurses already have access to vaccines. The current state standard for reopening elementary schools is 25 per 100,000 with no vaccines required, meaning that San Francisco Unified is eligible to fully reopen its elementary schools without further delay. The proposed San Francisco agreement would allow schools to reopen without teacher immunizations if the city reached the orange tier, which would be 1 to 3.9 new daily cases per 100,000 residents.