Yesterday, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced that the COVID-19 vaccination mandate for school employees will now extend to non-public schools. This includes Yeshivas, Catholic schools, other religious school, and other private schools. As of yet, no mandate has been put in place for school students, public or private.
Private school faculty and staff must now show proof of at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by December 20. Mayor DeBlasio stated that this mandate is intended to keep school communities and school aged children safe from COVID-19 infection. With cases of the new Omicron variant being discovered in New York, concern over the virus is again growing.
The mandate will affect about 56,000 employees across 938 private schools in New York City. The City has promised to make vaccines easily accessible to school employees by ensuring that any school that requests vaccination stations to be set up on site. These stations will also be available to eligible students who wish to get the vaccine.
The City has not yet addressed how it will handle employees or institutions that refuse to comply with the mandate, although multiple sources have inquired on the matter. Private school institutions may want to begin considering how they will approach the mandate and if they would like vaccination teams to be sent to their locations. We will continue to monitor any developments relating to this mandate.