In a growing number of school districts across the country, including New Orleans, Los Angeles and Cambridge, Mass., officials have implemented or are planning COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students.
In Vermont, the most vaccinated state in the country, no such mandate appears to exist in any school. But should it?
That’s a question that the Vermont Immunization Advisory Council, a group made up of education and medical officials, may consider when it meets this week to discuss the list of vaccines required in schools.
The council’s primary duty, according to state law, is to “review and make recommendations” about the state’s list of required shots for schoolchildren, which includes vaccines for polio, chickenpox and measles.
The council alone does not have the authority to require vaccinations; that power rests with the Vermont Department of Health, as well as state lawmakers.
Officials noted that the agenda for the upcoming meeting has not yet been set, and it’s not yet clear whether the council will take up the question of COVID-19 vaccines.
But doing so appears to have the support of a broad swath of the population. Roughly 60% of Vermonters support requiring COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren, according to a Vermont Public Radio poll last month.
Some school officials also expressed measured support for a COVID vaccine mandate.
Darren Allen, a spokesperson for Vermont’s chapter of the National Education Association, said the teachers union has “a longstanding position in favor of vaccinations.”
He noted that the Pfizer vaccine is currently allowed under an Emergency Use Authorization, and not full approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration.
“But we believe that once it becomes FDA-approved, and it’s out of emergency use, and if districts and states — whatever the entity is — wants to add it to the list of required vaccines, we obviously would support that,” he said. “As long as it’s, obviously, based in science.”
Jay Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association, said the organization has no official stance on the matter. Principals would likely back a mandate once the vaccine reached full FDA approval, he said.
“We’ll leave that up to the experts,” Nichols said. “If they think that it is at the point where it’s necessary for it to be a vaccine mandate to go to school, beginning next year or whatever, then we certainly would support that.”
State officials, however, were more circumspect.
Dan French, Vermont’s secretary of education, “has not formed a position yet on the question of whether to include a COVID-19 vaccine as part of required school vaccinations,” Agency of Education spokesperson Ted Fisher said in an email.
“He looks forward to a conversation about the science and the public health regulatory context, and working with his fellow task force members,” Fisher said.
Spokespeople for House Speaker Rep. Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, and Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, did not respond to emails and phone calls Friday.
“As the Governor has consistently done over the years, he will listen to the experts, as well as the parents, before adding his views on this issue,” Jason Maulucci, a spokesperson for Gov. Phil Scott, said in an email.
“However, as the Governor has said many times, while he believes being vaccinated is the right decision for individuals to make, he’s proud of the fact that Vermonters are leading the nation in many vaccination categories, without it being mandatory.”
Over 99% of people ages 12 and up in Vermont have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 64% of Vermonters in the same age group have gotten their booster shot, according to state data.
Just more than half of Vermont children ages 5 to 11 have received two Pfizer shots, state data shows.
On Tuesday, Pfizer asked the federal Food and Drug Administration to allow the shots for children between six months and 5 years old, meaning young children could be eligible for the jabs within just weeks.
At the governor’s weekly press conference last Tuesday, French said some schools are reporting 80% vaccination rates, and four — Green Mountain Valley School in Waitsfield, Vt., Harwood Union High School in South Duxbury, Vt., Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury, Vt., and the independent Open Fields School in Thetford — have vaccination rates above 85%.
If schools reach that 85% threshold, they are eligible for cash incentives.
But vaccination rates across all the state’s districts vary greatly, officials say.
“I think there are going to be school districts with substantially lower student vaccination rates than others, and we need to be able to provide some support to those districts,” French said Tuesday. “I’m not sure what that looks like yet.”