DENVER (KDVR) — Since Feb. 8, the state of Colorado has been allocating 30,000 doses of vaccine per week for child care workers in licensed programs and school employees.
The state set aside 120,000 doses for PreK-12 educators and child care workers in licensed programs based on the estimate of that number of people falling into that group.
Gov. Polis provided an update on the progress of the vaccination phases to date at his press conference on Friday, that included an update on educators. There will be another update early next week.
Approximately 77,125 first-dose vaccines have been administered statewide since Feb. 8 or 64% with a goal of reaching 75% by March 5. Since this total includes child care workers, it is not clear how many teachers specifically have been vaccinated.
But a spokesperson for the Colorado State Joint Information Center told the Problem Solvers it doesn’t have a count on the number of educators that have actually been vaccinated. That’s because the Colorado Immunization Information System doesn’t require occupational data to be inputted.
“I absolutely think the vaccination of educators is a factor if they consider re-opening,” said Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, the union representing the state’s teachers.
Baca-Oehlert told the Problem Solvers she assumed the state was tracking teacher vaccination rates but that is not the case. While the Colorado State Joint Information Center told FOX31 it’s working with the Colorado Department of Education to get updates from school districts, a spokesman for the CDE told the Problem Solvers the agency has no mechanism to collect such data. Several school districts told FOX31 they are not monitoring whether their teachers get vaccinated or not.
“We are not tracking the number of teachers that have actually received their vaccine,” said Pat Hamilton, the chief operating officer for the Adams 12 Five Star Schools District.
What Adams 12 does track is the number of teachers and staff members who have asked to be vaccinated so the district can pair them up with a vaccine provider.
“Of our teaching staff, 74% have raised their hand and said yes I want a vaccine,” said Hamilton.
While he’s not sure why there has been some hesitancy from one-fourth of Adams 12 teachers to get vaccinated, he said that would still be close to herd immunity within the teaching ranks.
It is one of the reasons why Hamilton thinks Adams 12 might fully reopen by March 29, when kids return from spring break and teachers will be two weeks past their second dose, the time period for the vaccine to take hold.
Like most of the bigger school districts in the metro, Adams 12 has elementary kids back in the classroom full-time but is on a hybrid model for middle and high school students.
“It’s a great thing that two weeks after that second dose, you’re no longer subject to quarantine so our ability to keep our schools open is much higher after we get that second dose,” said Hamilton.
The reality is most districts are not relying on teacher vaccination rates to reopen. “We also know the vaccine is not the silver bullet, so our districts have to consider all the other protective strategies like mask wearing, distancing, hand-washing,” said Baca-Oehlert.
Since Feb. 8, when the state made teacher vaccinations available, 55% of all Colorado students had already returned to full-time instruction based on numbers provide by the CDE. Younger kids are much more likely to be back in the classroom than older students.
Based on statistics provided by the CDE, 93% of elementary students are learning in-person but only 25% of middle and high school students are back in the classroom. Most small and rural districts in Colorado along with many private schools have been in-person since the beginning of the school year. It’s the larger school districts along the Front Range that have generally continued to rely on hybrid and remote learning models for middle and high school students.
“I think overall case numbers are a better indicator of whether to go back to school again. I think it’s giving people a false sense of security when you base it on who’s vaccinated and who’s not,” said Navi Merha, an Adams 12 parent who’s pro-vaccine but doesn’t think other parents should focus on teacher vaccination rates even in districts that try to track them.
Jefferson County schools has a COVID Dashboard that tracks teachers who have been vaccinated. As of Friday morning, it shows 4,217 staffers out of 11,003 employees. That’s just a vaccination rate of 38% but it’s probably higher because the stats are only based on teachers who self-report.
“Those numbers are so low I kind of wonder if that’s not going to instill fear in people instead and say why are so many teachers not getting the vaccine?” said Merha, who as a scientist herself said parents should pay more attention to a county’s COVID-19 dial. In fact, today Jefferson County just went to Level Blue, which allows for in-person learning for all grades.
Jeffco Public Schools announced it intends to resume full in-person learning for grades 6-12 in a phased approached beginning March 15 through April 5.