D.C. schools delay enforcing student COVID vaccine mandate until 2023

The Washington, D.C., public school system will not enforce its requirement for students to be vaccinated for COVID-19 before the first day of school – citing concerns about too many children missing classes and multiple, confusing deadlines.

D.C. students are require under city law to be fully vaccinated for several viruses including COVID, with any boosters deemed necessary.

Faculty at D.C. public schools are not required to be vaccinated against COVID after a judge struck down the district's mandate for city employees last week.

D.C.  Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn said the COVID-19 vaccine mandate won't be enforced until Jan. 3, 2023, after students return from winter break, according to the blog site DCist.

Students in pre-K through fifth grade will be required to show proof of routine childhood vaccinations, such as measles, by Oct. 11.

Students in grades six through 12 who do not take the COVID vaccine will receive an official notice of non-compliance by Nov. 21. Children under 12 are not required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus because the Food and Drug Administration has given only emergency-use authorization for the vaccine in this age group.

Kihn told D.C. school staff on Friday that the district is delaying enforcement of the student COVID vaccine mandate in order to "reduce the number of students who could be excluded from school at any one time, and to align schools and LEAs [local education agencies] to one unified notification and exclusion timeline."

The decision comes as more than one-in-four (26%) of D.C. public school students are considered non-compliant with childhood vaccinations, per D.C. Health data. The rates in several private and charter schools are much higher, such as in Briya Public Charter school, in which 92% of students are missing vaccinations.