The D.C. area’s largest teacher’s union says it supports a vaccine mandate for all Fairfax County Public Schools employees.
Fairfax Education Association President Kimberly Adams says the union, which represents about 4,000 school system employees, supports a vaccine mandate for teachers and staff and weekly testing for those who are not able to be vaccinated.
“With this delta variant, which has spread, we know that 90%, we believe that 90% of school staff are vaccinated, but we think that we can go a little farther to require that a vaccination is received by all school employees,” Adams said.
FCPS students, teachers and staff will be required to wear masks when they return to school Monday.
“Monday we welcome everyone back to school,” Adams said. “Monday, we’ve said, we’re coming back strong, FCPS five days in person.”
Teachers and staff have already been working for about two weeks.
“We’re already concerned, because there’s been some cases of staff coming to school with COVID, and we’ve been working on contact tracing and testing through the health department,” Adams said.
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Adams also advocates for a FCPS leave policy that reflects the changing nature of the coronavirus pandemic.
“There is no more COVID leave available through the FMLA, or Family Medical Leave Act, so we’re asking Fairfax County to extend that paid medical family leave through the end of the calendar year,” Adams said.
