Los Angeles Unified School District Interim Superintendent Megan Reilly announced on Friday that all employees in the school district must get the COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 15.
Reilly released the following statement:
“As part of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s efforts to provide the safest possible environment in which to learn and work, all district employees will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 15, 2021.”
Reilly added that all district employees will still have to take a weekly COVID-19 test for in-person learning, a safety protocol that was implemented last month.
The order comes following a vote by the Board of Directors of the United Teachers Los Angeles union. UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz expressed her support for the mandate.
“I am the parent of an LAUSD fifth-grader, and my family has been going through the same uncertainty and anguish as so many other families as we approach the return to school,” she said.
“Because of the protocols that UTLA educators and LAUSD families fought for and won, LA Unified has among the strictest COVID safety protocols in the country. But this Delta variant is unlike anything we have seen so far in this crisis — especially its impact on children — and we all need to step up to do our part to protect the most vulnerable among us.”
The board previously voted to not oppose a vaccine mandate.