Education

Parents now have until Wednesday to weigh in on state’s school vaccine survey

Parents and caregivers have until Wednesday to complete an online survey regarding the state’s consideration of adding COVID-19 vaccines to the list of immunizations required to attend K-12 schools and licensed childcare centers.

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The Washington State Board of Health on its website announced Jan. 24 that the survey, which originally was to close on Friday, will remain open until Wednesday.

Students in K-12 schools are not currently required to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Board of Health has tasked a technical advisory group, convened by the board in partnership with the state Department of Health, to evaluate the rule change.

Teachers and other school staff are required to be vaccinated or have an approved exemption.

Peninsula School District Superintendent Krestin Bahr at Thursday’s school board meeting urged parents to take the survey.

“I really encourage families to fill this out because this will be a public record and information that will go directly to the Board of Health,” Bahr said.

Earlier in the meeting, school board President Lori Glover read a statement reminding the public that school districts do not have the authority to require or waive vaccines. That authority rests, under state law, with the Board of Health.

“Having said that, however, we’re absolutely interested in hearing how the community feels and we value your comments,” Glover said. “We just want to make clear that the forum for the vaccines to make your voice known is that survey.”

As at other school board meetings, public comments included parents opposed to mask mandates and vaccines in schools. Several parents as a group submitted a letter accusing state officials of overreaching their authority and outlining ideas for how the board should “take back your rightful authority to determine how best to represent the parents of this district.” Their recommendations include a suggestion that the board withdraw from the Washington State School Directors Association.

Since 2006, the Board of Health has relied on multidisciplinary technical advisory groups to review vaccines against nine criteria and recommend to the Board whether they should be added to the list of required immunizations for school entry. The nine criteria are divided into three categories, addressing vaccine effectiveness, “disease burden” and implementation. Within the last category, the group assesses whether, “the burden of compliance for the vaccine containing this antigen is reasonable for the parent/caregiver.”

“We recognize that getting kids vaccinated can include transporting children to medical appointments, taking time off work for those medical appointments, maintaining the child’s immunization records etc.,” the advisory group states in introducing the survey. “Knowing that adding COVID-19 vaccine as a requirement for school entry will impact families across the state, we are asking for your input on the barriers you may face getting your kids vaccinated and how burdensome a COVID-19 vaccine requirement may be for you and your family.”

The survey has six questions and allows for comments.

Earlier versions of the survey have reached capacity on the Microsoft Forms platform accessible via the Board of Health website, but links to newer versions of the survey (same questions) are available until Wednesday.

Bahr at the meeting weighed in on mandating a COVID-19 vaccine for students.

“I am not in favor of that,” she said. “We really do not have any choice in the matter.”

On Monday, Bahr responded to a request for clarification on her statement, saying, “We are already doing so much to mitigate COVID-19 in our schools. In my opinion, a vaccine mandate right now would take our focus even further away from our mission of educating students.

“If a vaccine for school children does become mandated by the Washington State Board of Health, which I believe would occur only after the vaccine is fully approved by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), I will support the law,” Bahr said.

Katy Payne, spokeswoman for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, said in response to a request from Gig Harbor Now, “(State schools Superintendent Chris Reykdal) has said publicly many times that he would support a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students to attend our schools if that was the decision of the state Board of Health following their full review and approval process.”

Reykdal has also said he would not expect a vaccine mandate to go into effect this school year.

Read the Board of Health’s announcement about the survey (with links to the survey) here.