A huge boost in the number of vaccines targeted exclusively for the Los Angeles Unified School District could lead to in-person classes in the current academic year, but the district won’t bring students back to campus for at least six weeks — a return that also depends on the continued decline of coronavirus infection rates.
The lack of a firm return date is tied to demands by the teachers union. Teachers and counselors will not return to school until all have been offered vaccines and have achieved maximum immunity, union leader Cecily Myart-Cruz said Monday. Her union, United Teachers Los Angeles, also has set standards for lowered coronavirus infection rates that have yet to be achieved.
The union stance comes as the vaccine supply for LAUSD school staff greatly improved Monday, the first day of vaccine eligibility in L.A. County for the education sector.
First, the county upped its allotment to the nation’s second-largest school system to 8,800 this week and 8,800 next week, said L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner. Second — and the clincher — is that the district will receive its own allotment of 25,000 vaccinations from the state, a figure confirmed both by Beutner and an official with the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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