Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal announced a new partnership on Friday, which will seek to vaccinate state teachers by the end of spring.
OSPI will partner with Kaiser Permanente for the “Get Ready” plan, which will include 14-20 vaccination sites in both the Puget Sound region and Spokane. These sites will be able to offer vaccinations to over 80% of school staff. Additional plans are underway to ensure that “closer sites” are also available in downtown Washington.
This plan will continue to exist in the current state approach to vaccinations, which means that, at this time, doses are still limited to those over 65 years of age. Among public and private school employees in Washington, this phase currently consists of approximately 7,000 people. In total, the state has over 143,000 public school employees, while private schools still have 12,000.
Governor Inslee explains why he thinks it is safe for teachers to return
Eligibility is open to educators over the age of 50 in Phase 1B Level 2 generational households. The state is currently at level 1 of phase 1B. Students are below the list and are currently scheduled to be fully vaccinated in later stages.
The hope of this partnership with Kaiser is to “speed up the work” once the next phases of teachers and school staff are eligible to receive the vaccine.
“This program will allow Kaiser, as a great partner, to use incredible assets in the Puget Sound and Spokane region to ensure full coverage of our vaccine educators as soon as we receive a green light from DOH on the basis of the program phase, “Reykdal said on Friday.
OSPI and Kaiser are currently preparing these sites “as if we could launch in about four weeks, but it’s probably more practical to think about this five or six weeks away.”
The next phase of vaccinations will be allowed to start after 50% of people in the previous phase have received the first dose.