Opinion: My D.C. Charter Schools Required Staff To Be Vaccinated. Here’s What Happened.

September 24, 2021

As we planned for reopening schools this fall, our biggest worry was how to make up for lost learning time and address the social and emotional tolls a year of isolation had taken on our students. I wish I could say that’s where our focus has been. Instead, the increased spread of the delta coronavirus variant, just as the school year started, forced us to shift our attention to the most basic elements of running a school: keeping students healthy, safe and in the classroom.

After welcoming our 1,500 elementary students back to our three campuses, it quickly became clear that a vaccine mandate for staff was the only way to provide a stable learning environment, especially because our students are too young to be vaccinated. So on Sept. 1, we announced a policy that all employees of Rocketship Public Schools, D.C. must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Oct. 29. Employees who choose not to get vaccinated and don’t receive a Rocketship-approved exemption will no longer work at Rocketship as of Oct. 30.

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