LAUSD Opens First School-Based COVID Vaccine Site Wednesday
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – The Los Angeles Unified School District Wednesday opened its first school-based COVID-19 vaccination site.
The site is located at the Roybal Learning Center in the 1200 block of West Colton Avenue in downtown L.A.
According to the district, only teachers and employees who are ages 65 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine, per L.A. County's current vaccine eligibility requirements.
It's unclear exactly how many doses the Roybal Learning Center has on hand.
On Tuesday, L.A. County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer indicated that all teachers in L.A. County will likely be allowed to receive the vaccine beginning on March 1, along with food workers and law enforcement personnel.
The county also announced this week that the COVID-19 case rate had lowered to a threshold which allows for all elementary schools countywide to reopen campuses immediately.
However, LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner has repeatedly said that its campuses will not reopen until teachers and staff are vaccinated. Beutner said last week that for elementary schools to reopen, about 25,000 teachers and staff would need to be vaccinated first.
LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the nation.
"To vaccinate all who work in these schools, who are not otherwise already eligible, we would need to vaccinate about 25,000 people," Beutner said. "You heard that right, vaccinating 25,000 people will allow us to reopen elementary school classrooms for 250,000 children and help their half-million-plus family members start on the path to recovery and allow many of them to go back to work."
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School districts in the county will decide individually whether to actually open campuses for students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.
Those that do welcome students back will need to meet a series of safety protocols -- such as limited class sizes and provision of protective equipment - - while also continuing to offer a distance learning option to accommodate families wary of sending their children to in-person classes.
In-person classes cannot resume for grades seven through 12 until the county's rate of new COVID cases falls to seven per 100,000 residents.
Ferrer said Tuesday 12 school districts in the county have already had their safety plans approved, and two other districts have plans that are under review. A total of 173 private or charter schools have also had plans approved, with seven other private/charters awaiting approval of their plans.
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