Some school employees will begin receiving the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine this month as Ohio continues its goal of returning all children to in-person learning by March 1, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Tuesday.
DeWine says the state's goal is for every school employee to receive the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine in February.
Employees at Cincinnati city schools will begin receiving shots this week and other districts next week, though the state doesn't have enough doses on hand for all districts to begin receiving vaccinations this month, the governor said.
Earlier this month, DeWine announced districts would be required to agree to full in-person or hybrid learning by that date as a condition of receiving the vaccines.
Melissa Cropper, the President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said it was unrealistic to expect those who work in K-12 across the state would receive both shots by the return date.
“It's questionable they will even see the first vaccine by March 1,” Melissa Cropper said. “Even if you were to get the dose say the second week of February, you're not going to get that second dose before March 1.”
Cropper said the union doesn’t think the vaccine should be used as a bargaining chip for whether districts go back to school or not.
“Vaccines are an important step in getting people back to school and we very much want our kids back in school. We just want to make sure our learning environments are safe and that's better than setting an arbitrary date,” she said.